Our School Family
In 1859 Mangere Central School opened to serve the needs of a small but growing farming community of settlers from Great Britain as well as the local Tainui Iwi with whom the school still maintains a very strong connection. It is testament to the building skills of our ancestors and the value they place upon education that this original school building still stands today. The school buildings have since undergone a series of upgrades and development projects creating the vibrant, user friendly modern learning environment we are housed in today.
Now our school family consists of 500 students along with their teachers and families, who also form part of our Learning Community. Our Samoan members form our largest group at 32%, Maori comprise 23%, with Tongan and Cook Islands Maori forming 17% and 16% respectively. The rest of us are Pakeha, Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern. Our teaching and support staff are reflective of this cultural diversity.
In our Learning Community our long term goal is to be self-managing students in the 21st Century so we offer blended eLearning opportunities across our curriculum and to our extended school community. We highly valued reading, writing and mathematics but we also know that we need to be confident and connected learners in the 21st Century so in addition to all our learners receiving tuition in Te Reo Maori they also have the opportunity to learn about, experience and maintain the languages and cultures of our Pasifika communities and trading neighbours in the Asia-Pacific rim.
“A sustainable 21st century environment where learners are empowered to ‘take flight’ in our global community.”