Christ's College

Founded in 1850, Christ’s College is an independent Anglican school for boys from Year 9 to Year 13. College has a culture of excellence in all aspects of education. We support and inspire our students to always aim high and achieve their best.

Boys with a wide range of abilities are welcome at College. There is consistent emphasis on ambition and achievement at all levels and our student outcomes are amongst the best in New Zealand. We nurture the ambitions of some of the brightest scholars in the land, whilst taking equal pleasure in the outstanding progress made by those who benefit from our Learning Centre. The boys respect each other’s commitment, whether within or outside the classroom. Our diversity is a key to our success.

We know there are many different reasons why some boys experience difficulty with learning and require extra help. The Learning Centre provides a safe learning environment where, by means of a personalised learning programme, every boy who needs support is given the opportunity to achieve at his best.

Christ's College achieves leading academic results when compared with schools across New Zealand. Our tailored programmes enable us to offer enrichment programmes for identified students. Enrichment opportunities are led by specialist teachers and include creative writing courses, access to university presentations, linguistics, Brain Bee, classical literature, robotics and programming. We provide extra teaching assistance for academic scholarship programmes, and each department ensures extension opportunities are available. Academic mentoring supports the boys to achieve their goals.

College will provide the software required to support learning. This includes the Adobe suite for all boys. We provide Sibelius software for senior music students. Other commercial software, which College has student licences for, will be provided on a needs basis depending on the course. Installation of licensed software requires additional software to be installed on student laptops, which allows College to manage its licensing requirements.

College makes extensive use of the Google suite of applications, which are accessed online. These are free, and the files automatically save and can be accessed from any computer. They can also be easily shared with teachers. This means that if, for some reason, your son’s computer is out of action, he can access his files from another computer or laptop. Keeping software up-to-date will be the boys’ responsibility.

College has a filtered and managed internet connection and we block all objectionable material. College also runs a series of digital citizenship courses for boys and for parents. These courses are aimed at not only developing good digital learning skills (Digital Literacy), but also cover safe use of the internet and social media. Parent courses provide information on how you can support appropriate use of technology at home. Sites such as OpenDNS provide tools for parents to manage access at home, if needed. Apple’s OS also has built in management tools. It is important, however, that these tools do not interfere with the boys need to load educational software and use their laptops at College.

Provide a world class environment that develops a lifelong passion for all sports and physical activities. Many of our boys excel in more than one area of sport, and that is because of the opportunities provided by interhouse activities and through encouraging them to move outside their comfort zones, to be the best they can be.

Christ’s College is well known across New Zealand for its competitiveness in a broad range of sports, from traditional team sports to more recreation-based activities. Staff work alongside professional coaches to assist teams and individuals. The House system encourages participation in a wide range of sporting activities which lead boys into new experiences.

Boys are encouraged to enjoy sporting competitions without compromising the highest standards of sportsmanship and fair play. For many students sport is one path to personal satisfaction, understanding the value of endeavour, self-discipline, and other essential features of moral development. At Christ's College, sport is kept in balance with scholastic and other co-curricular activities but is considered to be a part of school life in which many boys can excel. Sport is compulsory in both summer and winter for Year 9 - 13 students.

College has exchange programmes in place with Bishops School in Cape Town and Michaelhouse in Natal, South Africa; Christ Church Grammar School in Perth and Knox Grammar School in Sydney, Australia; and the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, USA. Students should contact their Housemaster for details. We are the only South Island member of Round Square, an international network of over 160 schools in 40 countries, and have established exchange programmes with other Round Square affiliated schools