Macleans College

The school is named after the MacLean family. Robert and Every Maclean immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland. The family farmed the areas of land located in Howick that is the school's current location, as well as the surrounding government controlled reserves.[5][6]

The school was opened in 1980 by then Governor General Sir David Beattie with an initial roll of 199 students.[3] The first principal was Colin Prentice, who later became director of World Vision in New Zealand, followed by his deputy Allan McDonald in 1989. In 2000, upon McDonald's retirement, Byron J. Bentley,[7] became principal.[8]

In 2015, the school auditorium was renamed the 'Colin Prentice Auditorium' in honour of the late founding principal after his passing. In 2017, Byron Bentley announced his retirement as principal. He stood as the longest serving principal of the school, governing for 18 years.[9] An official student publication "The Collegian" launched in 2018.[10]

Upon admission, pupils are placed into one of the eight 'whanau houses'. These houses are named after significant New Zealanders, and the traits and achievements of this person influences the houses environment, charity and what it encourages. The selection is random, unless the student has or had any sibling or parent attend the school wherein the student has an option to be enrolled in the same house, or be randomly placed in any of the other seven.

The Whanau House system at Macleans divides the school into houses of about 300 students each, with two form classes of 30 or so students for each year level, all from the same house. The 'whanau house' system had previously been trialled at Penrose High School (now One Tree Hill College) by modifying existing buildings, but Macleans College was the first state school in New Zealand to be purpose-built around the system.

The original houses were Kupe, Hillary, Te Kanawa and Rutherford, although Hillary was rebuilt and reopened on 29 October 1992 after it burnt down on 13 October 1991.[3] Mansfield House was hastily opened in 1984 due to a surge in the school's roll, however the building itself was used earlier as temporary classrooms, having been airlifted via helicopter as prefabricated units.[11] More houses have been added as the roll has increased, with the latest addition being Upham, which was opened in 2003. The school currently has a roll of over 2,500 students.

The school is currently in the process of rebuilding all of its previous buildings due to leaks found and poor original construction. The school is in consideration with the Ministry of Education about all of these rebuilds. The Batten, Snell, Rutherford, Kupe, Upham, Te Kanawa, Hillary and Mansfield, along with staffroom, resource room and student advisory have all been completed, with the technology and sciences blocks currently under renovation.[12] Through this process, classes has often been relocated to 'X Block', a set of temporary prefabricated units that are parked on a tennis court.[13]

The school has also recently added an astroturf for sports such as co-curricular football and rugby next to the pre-existing tennis courts located across the school fields. Changing rooms, and other facilities have been built around these areas.

Macleans College is located in Macleans Park, the largest passive reserve in the Howick/Pakuranga district.[14] Due to its sloping terrain, the school has wide views of the adjacent Eastern Beach.

Each Whanau House has a one-storey building (with the exception of Batten, which has two due to being on a slope). This is due to a ban of buildings of over one storey in the whole Bucklands Beach-Eastern Beach area due to the scenery. Each house contains around 5 classrooms and 1 science lab and sometimes a computer lab, and often several associated prefabs (Kupe, Mansfield, Te Kanawa, Batten). Each Whanau House building also has a large central indoor commons area, which, along with being a general purpose socialising space, is used for house assemblies, lunch eating, and various co-curricular activities. Hillary, Kupe, Rutherford and Te Kanawa were built to a common design plan, known as the Whanau plan or S80 plan. Classroom blocks nearly identical to these were also built at Penrose High School and at Mountainview High School in Timaru. However these buildings have since been rebuilt according to new plan allowing for less classrooms and larger open commons spaces.

The school also contains specialised non-house associated Science and Technology, Computing, Graphics, Art, Music, and Engineering buildings, along with the large Barbara Kendall gymnasiums and a smaller Colin Prentice auditorium for productions and performance.

In 2013, 97.6 percent of students leaving Macleans College held at least NCEA Level 1 or IGCSE, 95.5 percent held at least NCEA Level 2 or AS, and 86.2 percent held at least University Entrance standard. This is compared to 85.2%, 74.2%, and 49.0% respectively for all students nationally.[17]

• Andrew de Boorder – cricketer, Auckland
• Derek de Boorder – cricketer, Auckland[18]
• Scott Campbell – baseball, Minor league, Arizona Diamondbacks[19]
• Colin Craig - businessman and founding leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand[20]
• Jarek Goebel – rugby, Auckland Blues[21]
• Kirsten Hellier – javelin, 1992 Olympics, 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games[22]
• Barbara Kendall – windsurfing, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics; the Barbara Kendall school gymnasium is named after her[23]
• Sean Lovemore – football, Wellington Phoenix[24]
• Aaron McIntosh – windsurfing, 1996 and 2000 Olympics[25]
• Corey Main – swimming, 2016 Olympics[26]
• Kyle Mills – cricketer, New Zealand team[27]
• Cameron Norrie - tennis, Achieved world ranking of No. 66 in August 2018
• Rhona Robertson – badminton, 1992 and 1996 Olympics[28]
• Kamahl Santamaria – journalist[29]
• Ryan Sissons – triathlete, 2012 Olympics[30]
• Natalie Taylor – women's basketball, 2008 Olympics
• Brooke Walker – cricketer, New Zealand team
• Elizabeth Stokes - The Beths
• Mark Weldon – swimmer, 1992 Olympics, former CEO of the New Zealand Exchange (NZX) and MediaWorks New Zealand[31]

An official Alumni Association was set up in 2016.[32]

• Macleans College website
• Education Review Office (ERO) reports for Macleans College