St Paul's Collegiate School

At the time of opening there were seven classrooms and an initial enrolment of 60 boys. The land purchased for the School was a farm called "The Great Oaks" and true to its name, it was full of many oaks. The oak has become a symbol for the school over the years.

St Paul’s takes its name from the greatest apostle of the Mediterranean, Saint Paul; a man who laid the foundations of the church in Greece, Italy and Turkey.

From 1963 to 1969 a number of significant events occurred at the School under the stewardship of Headmaster Hornsby. Among these changes were the construction of the dining hall and the opening of the library and gymnasium and the dedication of the Chapel of Christ the King.

Headmaster Tony Hart, 1970 to 1979, was the driving force to establish a venture school. He had a dream that "Surely one could let a boy spread his wings for a spell and live". This dream was fulfilled in the opening of Tihoi Venture School in 1979.

1985 saw the introduction of girls to St Paul’s with five girls beginning in that first year and a new house created with Harington Day House. In 1992 Harington Boarding House was opened.

St Paul’s Collegiate School is one of New Zealand’s leading independent day and boarding secondary schools for Year 9-13 boys and Year 11-13 girls. Located in Hamilton, our school has a reputation for providing personalised education that focuses on academic excellence.

St Paul’s Collegiate School has a reputation for getting the best from it students and for consistently achieving some of New Zealand’s highest academic results.

We make no apologies for setting high expectations. We want each and every one of our students to achieve personal bests in all areas of school life. More than often, these expectations are set much higher than other secondary schools – and our students deliver.

While our strongest focus is ensuring our students are achieving their potential in their academic studies, so too is our focus on developing good character in every young man and woman. Through our Character Education programme, ‘Over the Fence’ community service initiative, chapel programme and our promotion of an understanding of the importance of emotional intelligence, we are striving to prepare St Paul’s students to be resilient, agile and contributing members of society.

Located in Hamilton with a roll of 750 students, boys are welcomed from years 9-13, as day or boarding students. The senior years at St Paul’s offer co-ed learning while the junior school, years 9 and 10 remain a single-sex boys’ school.Tihoi Venture School is New Zealand’s only 18-week outdoor programme designed specifically for Year 10 boys.

Students are stripped of modern technology, such as television and mobile phones, and placed into communal living with seven age-mates, regular schooling and outdoor experiences. Both the outdoor and academic programmes are underpinned by a clearly articulated and modeled virtues and values programme that develops young men into independent, responsible and contributing members of society.

Hamilton campus boasts a modern student centre (built in 1998) and a state-of-the-art sports centre which includes glass-back squash courts, indoor cricket training nets, spring floor netball/basketball courts and a fully equipped exercise gym.

The development of a water-based hockey turf (2007) was a welcome addition to the school as was a new dining room (built in 2012) which provides a warm and comfortable space at meal times.

St Paul’s offers New Zealand’s National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and Cambridge International Examinations (CIE).Senior students are also offered the opportunity to sit New Zealand Scholarship examinations in addition to NCEA and CIE. Scholarship is for high-achieving students, providing them with recognition and monetary rewards in their final years of schooling.

In terms of preparing students for their secondary school qualifications, the School has a policy on small class sizes of less than 20, allowing for individual learning and one-on-one time between teacher and student. Smaller class sizes also means that our teachers are able to tailor their teaching method to suit the needs of each individual student, ensuring that they continue to improve academically, performing to the best of their ability.

In addition to St Paul’s personalised teaching approach, the School also provides a Learning Resources Unit (LRU) and English as a Second Language (ESOL) support to students who require a little extra help to achieve their best.

All four of the school’s boarding houses were recently redeveloped to create modern, homely, boarding spaces that our students call their home-away-from-home.A high-tech learning space for St Paul’s Agribusiness course opened in late 2015.

In 2017, the expansion of the Mary Hornsby Music School was completed which includes the new Evan McCulloch teaching classroom (doubles as a band practice facility), a recording studio to allow implementation of the new music technology curriculum, three group practice rooms, student storage, music office and toilet facilities. The large foyer can be used as a teaching break out space and for performances.St Paul’s is also in the process of redeveloping other areas of the school including a performance complex (extension from the Chapel), Hockey pavilion and learning hub.