When I attended Tauranga Boys College in 2007 the school had a range of extra-curricular activities ranging from all the usual sports, music groups, and performing arts groups. If there was anything that they did not offer and you were interested in taking it up, the school would support you in that. They would assign a teacher to whatever the new extra-curricular activity was and said teacher would go out of their way to make sure you had what you needed.

In terms of student leadership opportunities, Tauranga Boys College had a student leadership group made up of a head prefect and deputy head prefect, then a group of prefects (approximately 10) who had specific responsibilities. All extra-curriculars that the school offered had a student leadership team made up of senior students.

Tauranga Boys College offered NCEA as well as an Academy Program based around learning the skills for students to successfully gain apprenticeships. The top two classes of each year group undertook an accelerated pathway through NCEA (effectively working a year in front of their peer group). The students in this pathway could then take extra scholarship subjects and university papers in their final year of school, along with extra Level 3 subjects that didn’t fit into their timetable the previous year. Classes were streamed but the streaming was not made public to the boys, apart from the two top classes. Tauranga Boys utilized a vertical form class structure. Each form class had boys in it from Year 9 through to Year 13.

Tauranga Boys College has an extremely strong tradition focusing on helping the boys achieve to their very best. The school culture revolved around respect and achievement. The teachers treated the boys like adults (within reason), class room management was performed in such a way as to make the use of raised voices for the most part, unnecessary. Punishment for misbehaviour was immediate and usually consisted of standing in the first instance, followed by push ups for continued misbehaviour. The focus of the school was on helping the students achieve to the very best of their ability academically. The school also completely supported the pursuit of excellence in extra-curricular actives, both sporting and cultural.

The vertical form class structure helped to make an inclusive environment throughout the school. At the time I was there the school roll was around 2000 students but it felt a lot smaller. The school used houses to help the interaction between students across year groups. Running all the usual inter-house competitions.

The facilities of Tauranga Boys are extremely good. They are constantly upgrading and providing new facilities. Ranging from a professional level theatre to a two gym sports complex that has held national indoor volleyball tournaments.

The best parts of attending Tauranga Boys College was the respect that you were treated with by the staff as well as the support that the school would give you to pursue your goals. I had no negative experiences whilst I went there.