School Insight: Macleans College

High School Insights High School (New Zealand)
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Is there anyone who has had personal experience with Macleans College?

I’m interested to learn more about the school:

  • Size: cohort, male-female ratio, teachers
  • Academics: curriculum, structure (is it streamed?), previous results, available subjects (strong/weak?)
  • Extracurriculars: academic, sport, cultural, arts (music, theatre etc)
  • Leadership: institutional vs innovative (and the opportunities available to demonstrate each)
  • Location / Facilities
  • School Tradition and Culture
  • Social: How inclusive is the school? How easy is it to make friends? What’s the social scene like in/out of school?

I’d be interested to hear about both the strengths and weaknesses of Macleans.

What are some of the reasons that I’d choose Macleans over other top schools in Auckland?

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  • Size wise, the school is one of the biggest in New Zealand with nearly 3000 students from year 9 to 10. I’d say the Male-Female ratio is pretty much 1:1, and not too sure about teachers.

  • Academic wise it’s one of the best schools in New Zealand. It is streamed with around 4 classes every year which take all their subjects a year earlier than usual. The curriculum is either NCEA or CIE. For CIE, The subjects available are only limited to the difficult subjects, and you’re not allowed to take subjects like Thinking Skills, Psychology etc. Results wise, I’d definitely say we’re the best in New Zealand in CIE, and tied best in New Zealand in NZQA Scholarship in the last 5 years. We are also 1st in Olympiad Medalist count at the maths/science olympiad in New Zealand.

  • Extracurricular wise: Everything you would find at an established school, but I’d say the sports level is weak while the cultural level is very high.

  • Location/Facilities: The buildings are nearly all rebuilt with the science block getting rebuilt very soon, so it’s really one of the best in my opinion.

  • School Culture is surprising chill. Apart from the CIE/NCEA dual curriculum that splits students into two groups in terms of academics, it’s quite inclusive and easy to make friends. The social scene is very open and I would say it’s a great community.

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