Riccarton High School
Encyclopedia
Riccarton High School is a state co-educational secondary school located in Upper Riccarton
Upper Riccarton
Upper Riccarton is a suburb of Christchurch. It is due west of Riccarton.Upper Riccarton is made up of residential, retail and education areas. It includes a major intersection known as "Church Corner"...

, a suburb of Christchurch
Christchurch
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

History

The school opened in 1958 with an initial roll of 142 pupils and 8 teachers. The school's roll increased over time, reaching its height in 1974 when it had some 1,149 pupils on its books. With the opening of Hornby High School
Hornby High School
Hornby High School is a secondary school located in Christchurch, New Zealand which was established in 1975. it is located in the suburb of Hornby, to the west of the city centre. Facilities at HHS were designed to accommodate a maximum of over 800 students; current enrollment is approximately...

 in 1976, Riccarton's roll began to drop. The lowest roll was in 1986 when the school had dropped to just 612 pupils. Since then, the school has increased its numbers, stabilising at about 950 pupils a year.

Academics

The school uses the NCEA
National Certificate of Educational Achievement
The National Certificate of Educational Achievement is, since 2004, the official secondary school qualification in New Zealand.It has three levels, corresponding to the levels within the National Qualifications Framework, and these are generally studied in each of the three final years of...

 assessment system for Years 11 through 13, with a Not Achieved (NA), Achieve (A), Merit (M) or Excellence (E) grade.

Sport, Music and Culture

Each year the school engages in a Winter and Summer sports exchange with Kaikorai Valley College
Kaikorai Valley College
Kaikorai Valley College is a large co-educational secondary school in Dunedin, New Zealand. Initially starting as Kaikorai Valley High School in 1958, the school combined with Kenmure Intermediate School in 1996 to become Kaikorai Valley College, and in 2008 celebrated its 50th jubileeThe college...

 from Dunedin, with the most successful school taking home the respective shield.
Some 40 clubs, sports, music and cultural groups are currently on offer.

Riccarton High School has two sister schools in Japan. They are Takefu Higashi High School senior school in the Fukui Prefecture and Sakai Machi in Gunma Prefecture.

Facilities

In 2004 the school entered into a "partnership" with the Christchurch City Council
Christchurch City Council
The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since 2007, the Mayor of Christchurch is Bob Parker, who stood as an independent candidate...

 to build a large school/community joint-use library and cafe at the school.

Notable alumni

Famous past pupils of Riccarton High School include Nicky Watson
Nicky Watson
Eric Watson born 1959 in Christchurch, New Zealand is a global businessman, now resident in London. In 2011 the National Business Review listed Watson as the 30th richest New Zealander with a wealth of $NZ220 million.-Personal:...

 and Waimarama Taumaunu
Waimarama Taumaunu
Waimarama Taumaunu, MBE, is a New Zealand netball coach and former international netball player.Taumaunu was born in Waipawa, New Zealand. She was a member of New Zealand's national netball team, the Silver Ferns, from 1981 to 1991...

.

External links

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