the anniversary
The Community College Seniors wore mufti, the facilities were great, the arts were encouraged — Selwyn College alumni of a certain age look back with fondness. By Louise Richardson
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s Kohimarama’s Selwyn College celebrates 60 years and prepares to move into its seventh decade, hundreds of alumni have attended celebrations held throughout 2016. The guest list at all events has been a veritable who’s who – especially from the creative world. This seems fitting since the arts – and especially drama, have always been integral to the school’s educational programme. Selwyn College is relatively young; it was completed in 1956 – a year earlier than was initially estimated by builders who had expected considerable difficulty in tackling the clay-soil site. Named for Auckland’s first Anglican bishop, George Selwyn (1809-1878), it catered to the fast-growing suburbs of Kohimarama and Orākei, St Johns and Meadowbank, and was the first of a new generation of school buildings, designed to be bright and airy, as opposed to the solid stone structures that characterised existing high schools in the city at that time. Intrinsic to Selwyn College’s identity, right from day one, was a sense of community, which has sustained it through many good years as a leader in multi-cultural education, and, in the mid2000s, during a tumultuous time when the school was accused of falling standards. That controversy, say school leaders, is well behind them as the academic achievements of Selwyn’s students continue to multiply, with current NCEA pass rates above 90 per cent. The school’s current principal is Sheryll Ofner. School archivist Diane Northcott has an association with Selwyn College that goes back 30 years, when she taught there as a new graduate. “Selwyn people seem to be really good at keeping in touch,” she says. “They tend to have regular 10-year reunions and I think that’s partly due to being a relatively young school. Our foundation students were all born during the early 1940s, so lots of them are still going strong in their 70s.” Outside of the official reunions there are also many more casual ones and some of the forms from the 1970s still get together very regularly. Something like 27 out of the original 34 from one particular class met up on Waiheke not long ago. “They always seem to have a lot of fun,” says Northcott. From an initial 330 students in the school’s first year, the roll has now increased to around 1000 full-time students. Selwyn College also has a very strong community education focus, one of the largest in the country. Its track record with refugee education is particularly impressive, says Northcott, who recalls the local community getting behind the school to help Croatian and Kosovans arriving as refugees from civil war in the mid 1990s, teaching them a range of practical skills vital for their new homeland, as well as language lessons. While the arts are strong in the alumni credentials, students have also succeeded in many other fields. In the early days the school had a cadet corps, and an armoury for storing weapons.
Camps were held each summer – often at local airforce bases - and quite a number of young men ultimately ended up working with aircraft as the air travel industry rapidly became more popular and accessible. Former Kohi resident Ross Hawkins, now working with New Zealand Sotheby’s International Realty, remembers his school days with warmth. His father, Murray, was on the board of governors, which oversaw three schools: Selwyn, Penrose High (now One Tree Hill College) which opened the year before Selwyn, and newcomer Glendowie College, which opened in 1961. “We were a family of four brothers, living locally,” says Ross Hawkins. “Bryce was the first of us to go to Selwyn College, starting in 1969. In his day they were very strict about uniform, with blazers and ties. But by the time I came along in 1977, we were about to go into mufti for 6th and 7th formers. That was considered pretty radical at the time!” The Hawkins’ kept their school connections close — Ross’s brother, Philip (class of ’71), “married Julie Pastor who was the tea lady at the 1st XV after-match functions”. Craig (class of ’74) has one son at the school, and another will start in the near future. Other alumni include entrepreneur Derek Handley, fashion designer Jane Daniels, Equal Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue, actress Danielle Cormack and Sabato gourmet food store owner, Jacqui Dixon. Another foodie, Nici Wickes, one of four sisters, was head girl in her senior year. “I’m one of those people who absolutely loved my school days,” she says. “My mum, Carole, worked at Selwyn, so I guess it was inevitable that we would have a close relationship with the school.” Wickes’ father, Bruce, worked to create the trust behind the school’s sports complex, the ASB Stadium, raising millions of dollars to get it off the ground against the backdrop of the 1987 share market crash. She recently returned to the school for the first time in 15 years. “The quad looked the same but there were lots of changes too. It has certainly got a lot bigger!” For more information, see selwyn.school.nz
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