Roncalli College is a Catholic college in Timaru

Timaru

TimaruUrban AreaPopulation:27,200Extent:Former Timaru City CouncilTerritorial AuthorityName:Timaru District CouncilPopulation:42,867 Land area:2,736.54 km² Mayor:Janie AnnearWebsite:...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It is named after Pope John XXIII

Pope John XXIII

-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...

, whose birth name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. It is a co-educational college, with approximately 550 students from Year 9 to Year 13, it is situated on Craigie Avenue, next to the Sacred Heart Basilica. It is set in 3.12 hectares (7.7 acre) of land, with 13 free-standing buildings.

It practices NCEA

National Certificate of Educational Achievement

The National Certificate of Educational Achievement is, since 2004, the official secondary school qualification in New Zealand.It has three levels, corresponding to the levels within the National Qualifications Framework, and these are generally studied in each of the three final years of...

 examinations for its senior students with a high rate of success. In 2005 87.7% of Roncalli students achieved NCEA Level 1, 70.3% of students achieved Level 2, 71.2% achieved Level 3, and 66.7% achieved University Entrance. All these figures were well above the national average.

It has a high participation and success rate in sport, with netball, rugby, basketball and especially rowing and mountain-biking among the most popular sports played, but many other sports are available, such as badminton, volleyball, soccer, tennis, cricket, and hockey among others.

It also has a strong culture of foreign students, with students coming from Europe, South America, Asia, Scandinavia and the Pacific Islands.

It has also won an award for the best Outdoor Education program in New Zealand.

History

Roncalli College was created by the merger of St. Patricks High School and Mercy College in 1981. Roncalli is now on the site, and most of the buildings are remnants from the days of the single sex schools. St. Patricks was the local high school for Catholic boys, run by the Marist order, and Mercy College was the local Catholic school for girls, run by the Mercy sisters, from their convent, which was situated on what is now the rugby field. The schools were separated by the "Iron Curtain" or "Brown Curtain", a corrugated iron fence which ran the length of the boundary between the two schools, which kept the boys and girls separated. The penalties for being on the wrong side of the fence were rather severe, any boy caught on the wrong side of the fence without a valid reason was invariably caned. In the last days of St Pats and Mercy, the pupils from St Pats were instructed by the Rector to tear down the fence as a prelude to amalgamation. The event was photographed and featured in the Timaru Herald newspaper.

In October 2007, Roncalli College celebrated its 25th Jubilee.