Why Huntley?
Categories: Content; Content;Publication: Our School;
Date: 0000-00-00
|
» Parent's Comments
» Recent Achievements
» Opportunities
» Huntley School History
|
Parent's Comments
"Raising children is about giving them opportunities. Huntley is the best opportunity we could give our son at this age. We think the school is excellent."
"The Huntley School environment, combining a stimulating education and tons of varied activities, while instilling traditional values, is what attracted us to the school. It has exceeded our expectations. Our son
"A fantastic investment in our son's future."
"Although a difficult decision, Huntley has been the making of our son. He has grown in confidence and achieved in academic and cultural activities far beyond our expectations."
"The educational attributes Huntley School brought to Bryce have set such a strong hold for his future years of schooling."
"Huntley School provided our boys the wonderful opportunities to attain self confidence, good attitudes and respect. Their academic and sporting achievements were outstanding --- The right direction for their future."
"Life is a big adventure and it starts at Huntley. Huntley is an extension of family life. The staff identify each boy's strengths and weaknesses - There is nothing mediocre about the school at all! |
Recent Achievements
Below are some of 2008’s highlights set out in the Five Dimensions of Development.
Academic Highlights
- Matthew Redmayne winning an Academic Scholarships to Wanganui Collegiate
- Guy Austin winning an Academic Scholarship to Lindisfarne
- Every boy passing & 37% achieving distinctions in the New Zealand Speech Board’s Oral Assessments
- Felix Bird winning a Music Scholarship to Wanganui Collegiate
- Australasian Science, English and Mathematics Competition Results
- Y7 Team Winning the Wanganui Mathex
- Y8 Team coming runner up in the Wanganui Mathex
- Year 8 Capital E trip
- Our 3rd annual Book Week
Physical Highlights
- 1st XI Hockey Team’s winning the Manawatu Intermediate Cup for the 7th year in a row.
- 7 boys making the Hatch Cup Hockey Team
- The Rugby 1st XV's unbeaten prep season
- 1st XI Soccer winning 80% of their matches
- Clean sweep of Hereworth in all Rugby prep fixtures
- Winning the Hunterville Cross Country
- The Swimming Sports
- The Athletic Sports
Cultural Highlights
- The Jazz Band Winning the National Secondary School's Jazz Festival in the under 21 division.
- The Chapel Choir’s performances at the Music Concert and the Carol Services
- The huge number of boys passing Music Examinations A significant number with honours
- The Year 8 play “Bad Day at Black Frog Creek”
- Felix Bird (Distinction Saxophone Grade 6) and Piano Grade 6
|
Opportunities
|
||||||||||||
Huntley School - A Very Brief History
A boys' school was founded in Marton in 1896, under the joint Headmastership of Messrs Charles Mather and Basil Wilson, to prepare boys for entrance to the Wanganui Collegiate School. Accordingly, in 1899 it was given the name, the Marton Preparatory School. The school occupied various buildings until 1900 when it moved into the original two storeyed, wooden building on the present site.
Mr Wilson died in 1902, but Mr Mather continued as Headmaster, renaming the school Huntley School after Huntley Hall which was his home in England. He retired in 1919. By this time the roll was in the seventies and the original building had been greatly extended.
The school continued to be owned by its successive headmasters, viz:- Messrs Strombom, Sherriff and Rix-Trott, until a Trust Board was established in 1954 to purchase and run the school, with Noel Rix-Trott continuing as Headmaster. The formation and financing of the Trust Board was due mainly to the efforts of a small group of very dedicated Old Boys of the school. There are eight members of the Board. Three of these are elected representatives of the Old Boys' Association, three are the elected representatives of the Parents' and Friends' Association, and two are appointees of the Diocese of Wellington.
After a period of planning the Trust Board decided on a major re-building programme to replace the original old wooden building. Work commenced in 1964 with the construction of the dormitory block and proceeded in stages with the Main School block being completed in 1971. The Trust Board has continued to update and add ancillary buildings and extend the sporting facilities in the ensuing years to the stage where the only ‘original' buildings are the Chapel (1908), although this has been extended, the Cottage (1928), and the Cricket Pavilion (1928). In the eighties a full sized gymnasium (1980); an administration block (1985); a multi-purpose science laboratory (1985); computer facilities, three hard tennis courts (1986); a network of twenty Apple Macintoshes (1989/1992); library extensions (1989); and two new classrooms (1989) have been added. The nineties has seen a continuation of the development programme with two staff houses (1990/92); an adventure playground (1992); a recreation room (1994); the Arts and Technology Centre (1996), which includes a theatre, museum, music rooms, art room, woodwork room and computer laboratory; a completely renovated ablution area in the dormitory block (1996); the addition of a multi-media centre attached to the library (1996); four astro turf tennis courts (1997); three permanent practice cricket wickets (1997); a revamped cricket pavilion (1997); renovated classrooms (1998), museum (1998), car park (1999), completion of the technology upgrade (2000), dormitory re-roofed (2002), dormitory revamped (2003), Library revamped (2003), Arts & Technology block revamped (2005).
