St Andrew's College, also known as StAC, in Christchurch, New Zealand, is a private, co-educational school that enrols from pre-school to secondary Year 13. It was founded in 1917 and it is the only independent, co-educational primary and secondary school in New Zealand'sSouth Island. Although now a fully co-educational school, it was formerly an all-boys school. It became fully co-educational in 2001. The current rector of St Andrew's College is Christine Leighton.
History
St Andrew's College was founded by Rev. Alexander Thomas Thompson in 1917 in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of the Christian faith. The school began in a humble fashion with 19 boys and four teachers, driven by the determination of the Reverend Thompson, whose driving ambition was to ‘educate the sons of the Presbyterian and Scottish community of Canterbury.’ StAC had three boarding houses for the 165 boarders of years 9 to 13: MacGibbon and Rutherford for boys, and Thompson for girls. Boarding facilities were damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake; as a result, the boarders have lived in local motels until the new boarding houses were opened at the start of 2013. Thompson and Rutherford houses have been demolished and replaced with brand newstate of art boarding facilities while McGibbon House has been refurbished and strengthened. Boarding used to be available for year 7 and 8 students, but is no longer provided. St Andrew's College has four houses: Rutherford, MacGibbon, Thompson and Erwin. On 31 October 2008, the students and teachers of St Andrew's College set a world record for the largest school mass dance with a recital of the YMCA. In 2017, St Andrew's College celebrated its 100th anniversary. In 2020, students of the school reported that a teacher tore down posters and verbally abused them for promoting the Black Lives Matter movement. The school conducted an investigation but did not publish the outcome.
Plans
The 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake severely damaged the school chapel and forced the closure of the school arts block and Strowan house, which both sustained some structural damage, however, most of the schools buildings were relatively undamaged, and the arts block has since been repaired and strengthened. Strowan house has now re-opened, and a new chapel has been built which incorporates design features from the original chapel. In late 2014 Erwin house was demolished to make room for a second gymnasium.
