Auckland Sport College

Auckland Sports College

"Moving Forward Together"

Auckland Sports College - Kelston

We have completed our consultation and are planning for the establishment of Auckland Sports College as a co-educational Year 9-15 designated character state school on the current Kelston Girls' College campus once the Girls' school moves to co-locate with Kelston Boys' High School on that school's site. This will require the revival of the KVP (Kelston/Kerehana Vision Project). In the end this is a political decision as the co-location may cost 20 million dollars

Kelston Girls' College is a below-average girls' single-sex secondary school. The 2024 UE award rate to Year 13 students of 26.8% was a little under half the national average for Year 13 girls of 56.1% We were interested in why half of all parents living in the Kelston secondary school zone send their daughters to schools out-of-zone. In 2000 the roll of Kelston Girls' College was 861 with 229 European students. In 2023 the roll was 496 with 9 European students The most common reason we were given is that the parents wanted their daughters to attend a co-educational school. Other parents echoed the comments of a Samoan mother who explained, in a 2018 NZ Herald article, why her daughter took the bus past Kelston Girls' College to Avondale College every day. She said "Why would I take my child to a local school that I know is not the greatest, when I can give her better?" and "It depends what crowd you put your child in. I drive through Kelston and I'm thinking like, Oh no, I don't want my child to go there." This mother has a point. In 2024, 77% of Year 13 students at Avondale College were awarded UE.

We don't see Auckland Sports College as a competitor to Kelston Girls' College. Auckland Sports College will provide an in-zone option for local parents who want their daughter(s) to attend a co-educational high school.

We were surprised when we had a look at, and consulted about, Kelston Boys' High School. We have links to the school that extend back to the time (Sir) Graham Henry was deputy principal there. All four sons of the presiding member of our EBOT attended the school. They enjoyed their time there, but it was a school where size mattered and where it was best to travel in packs. When our EBOT's presiding member finished his term as presiding member of the Board the school had a 29% UE award rate. In the short time since (six years) the Board has overseen the collapse in the UE award rate to just 12.1% in 2024. This a litle more than one-quarter of the national average for year 13 boys of 44.7%. The school remains a violent place. It is a "Bring Your Own Device" school but almost all of the boys with whom we are engaged do not have a device. They go to school in uniform but without a pen, books, or a device. For them Kelston is a drop-in youth centre. For their parents it is a baby-sitting service. We believe Kelston Boys' High School is making the transition to becoming a vocational college. Auckland Sports College will be the school where boys living in the Kelston secondary zone can attain their highest possible level of educational achievement. The two schools will not be competing.

Many parents are fiercely protective of the school, and good on them. But that does not mean the school has no flaws. Nor does it mean that the school is for everyone.

We are very supportive of the students at Kelston Boys'. Around 10% of them are engaged with the positive youth development service to which we provide a tutoring service. The service has a long waiting list of Kelston students. They are fine young men, many of whom are sacrificing a mainstream career in the hope of 'making it' in rugby through Kelston. As one of them said to us, "I want to come to you for learning, but I have to go to Keli for rugby". The sad thing is that few, if any, of those boys who attend Kelston will go on to become All Blacks. The last Kelston old boys to debut for the All Blacks were Sione Lauaki and Kevin Senio in 2005, twenty years ago.

Auckland Sports College is not seeking to compete with Kelston Boys' High School. Kelston is a low-achieving school with a reputation for violence where rugby is king. We are seeking to provide a choice for secondary school education that will be acceptable to the 50% of parents who live in the Kelston secondary school zone but wish their children to attend a co-educational school or choose to send their children to "better" schools out-of-zone. However, there is the prospect of significant drift of current Kelston Boys' High School students who do not have professional rugby ambitions. Boys with academic aspirations may move, as may those who are disengaged, not achieving, and who have had enough of picking up rubbish around the school.

Key points of difference between Auckland Sports College and Kelston Boys' High School are listed in the table

Co-educational vs single-sex This was a recurrent piece of feedback. Many in-zone parents won't enrol their children at a single-sex school.

Academic Achievement At Auckland Sports College, University Entrance is the expected school leaving qualification. Kelston Boys High School believes the highest standard of educational attainment for the vast majority of its students is NCEA Level 3

STEM Focus Auckland Sports College students will be encouraged to take university entrance approved courses, particularly maths and sciences. At Kelston, students are steered away from 'hard' courses and into easy courses in order to keep the school's NCEA pass rates up. One of the reasons the government is scrapping NCEA is to stop schools doing this.

Bilingual Units We will not be duplicating the bilingual units

Year 14 students welcome We appreciate that some students require an extra year to complete UE. Last year Kelston declined the re-enrolment of one of 'our' boys who wished to repeat Year 13 in order to obtain UE. The principal emailed his mother saying "With an attendance rate of 46% and a list of pastoral records, it was evident that Pita did not prioritise his learning. As such, I will not be considering Pita's re-enrolment."

Violence We have spoken to some of the violent boys at Kelston and have agreed that violent students at ASC (those involved in a fight on our outside school grounds while in school uniform, whether or not they were "in the right") will be removed from the classroom for a minimum period, which would not be less than one week. Conditions of their being allowed back into class would be 100% attendance for the previous week and schoolwork up-to-date.

Community Involvement Auckland Sports College intends to operate a much more transparent advisory board structure with public meetings perhaps six times a year where the school community can raise and discuss problems, and with minutes of those meetings published to the school web-site. This approach has been very successful at Western Springs College. At present the Kelston Boys' High School Board meets, but our understanding is that no member of the public has attended a Board meeting in the last three years.

Auckland Sports College will lift the achievement of Kelston Boys' High School Students

ASC provides tutoring to a group of 2 Year 10 students and 15 Year 11 students from Kelston Boys'. The table below shows their performance at the end of Term 3.

Kelston Boys' High School Auckland Sports College

Name Literacy Numeracy NCEA Credits Literacy Numeracy NCEA Credits Level 1 Achieved Level 2 Progress

Year 10
A CAA 0 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

B CAA 0 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

Year 11

C CAA 14 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

D 5 14 0

E CAA CAA 25 - - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

F ALT CAA 24 - - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

G 5 9 12 ASC/BEWT L2 12Cr

H ALT 5 31 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr
J ALT 5 12 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

K 5 14 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

M CAA CAA 36 - - 0

N 5 5 5 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

P ALT CAA 45 - - 56 Yes KBHS- ASC 26 L2 Cr, 30 L3

Q CAA 5 24 - 0

R ALT 5 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

S 5 9 - 12 ASC/BEWT L2 12Cr

T ALT 5 5 - 22 ASC/BEWT L2 22Cr

In the table 'CAA' means that the NCEA literacy or numeracy pre-requisite was obtained through the externally assessed Common Assessment Activity. 'ALT' means the literacy or numeracy pre-requisite was obtained through the internally assessed literacy or numeracy rich achievement standards accepted as an alternative to the CAA.

Auckland Sports College was involved with student P in 2024. He gained 56 credits through ASC. He has met the requirements of NCEA level One. As he obtained more than 30 of the required 60 credits, but not 60 (yet) through Kelston Boys' High School he is recorded as "Kelston-" in the last column as Kelston was the lead provider but required assistance to get this student over the line (at this stage).

Students A and B are in Year 10. When they heard that student P was receiving tutoring in Level 2 calculus from Auckland Sports College, they requested tutoring too. Both students are at Achieved Level now, and could expect Merit grades in the external exam. Unfortunately, the Acting Principal of Kelston Boys' High School has declined to enter them into the Level 2 external calculus and algebra exams despite a request from the students' parents that he do so. He has also said that the boys will not be allowed into the Level 2 Maths with Calculus class in 2026 unless they pass the Level One external examination, and has entered them into this BUT the school will not teach them the Level One syllabus or move them into a Level One class for the remainder of the school year.

Students P and Q wish to be engineers. That is they both wish to be accepted into a B.Eng(Hons) programme. The school has placed them both into "automotive engineering", a vocational pathway, unit standard assessed course. Students in a vocational pathway are placed in vocational English and vocational maths at Kelston.

We expect student P will end 2025 with NCEA Level 2 completed a year early. He will have no Level 2 credits through Kelston Boys' High School.

We anticipate that those 5 students with between 20 and 40 credits will meet the requirements of NCEA level One in 2025, although several may require an "assist" from Auckland Sports College to get over the line.

The challenge is those 9 students who end Term 3 of their Year 11 at Kelston Boys' High School without having completed the NCEA pre-requisite and with fewer than 20 NCEA level One credits. They will not achieve NCEA Level One in 2025 through Kelston Boys' High School. We have approached the school and asked what its plan is to get these students through NCEA Level One, and offered to assist. The school has no plan for individual students. In previous years it has offered opportunities to earn catch-up credits. If it does so again this year we will encourage these boys to complete the literacy prerequisite through the school.

We have met people who say Kelston Boys' High School is a high-achieving, non-violent school. We have set out evidence for three of our key claims below.

Kelston Boys' High School is a low achieving school

Both the departing principal and the previous Board chair (defeated in the 2025 school Board election) state that Kelston Boys High School is a high achieving school as 85% of the school's Year 13 students gained NCEA Level 3 in 2024. NCEA Level 3 attainment is not a measure of academic achievement. Scholarship success is. At neighbouring Avondale College, students earned 47 scholarships in 2024. No student from Kelston Boys' earned a scholarship.

University Entrance is a common measure of academic achievement. In 2024, 50.6% of all Year 13 students in New Zealand were awarded UE. At Avondale College 77% of Year 13 students were awarded UE. At Liston College, the other boys' school in West Auckland, 93% of Year 13 students gained UE. At Kelston 12.1% of Year 13 students were awarded UE in 2024. The table below documents the collapse from a high in 2018. The current principal (who has announced her resignation) was appointed in 2018. The Board presiding member elected in 2019 served until 2025.

Year Kelston Asian European Maori Pacific Other
2024 12.1% 29.4% 19.0% 6.3% 8.4%
2023 14.9% 37.5% 15.0% 10.5% 14.7% 0.0%
2022 14.8% 28.6% 25.9% 12.0% 9.6%
2021 20.5% 44.4% 37.5% 11.1% 15.9%
2020 21.7% 38.5% 43.8% 16.7% 15.9%
2019 22.4% 41.7% 38.5% 31.6% 14.8%
2018 29.3% 50.0% 45.0% 31.3% 21.3%
2017 25.3% 57.1% 27.3% 21.7% 21.2%
2016 25.2% 53.3% 38.9% 32.0% 15.1% 57.1%
2015 25.4% 42.1% 55.6% 14.3% 17.9%
2014 24.2% 27.8% 42.4% 17.4% 19.4%

School leaver achievement is the main achievement measure used by the Ministry of Education. In the table below we have listed the percentage of students who left Kelston Boys' with either NCEA Level 3 or UE from 2018-2024. This is 'school leaver' not 'Year 13' data so it includes students in Years 10-12 who left the school, as well as students in Year 13.

Year NCEA Level 3 University Entrance
2024 64.2% 9.9%
2023 57.4% 10.1%
2022 53.3% 10.2%
2021 35.4% 12.4%
2020 51% 17.5%
2019 47% 19.3%
2018 48% 21.6%

The table shows that the school has shifted away from UE as the leaving qualification. It has lowered its sights to NCEA Level 3 as the leaving qualification.

A third measure of academic performance is the proportion of Year 11 students who gain NCEA Level One. Across the whole of New Zealand, 71.5% of Year 11 students attained NCEA Level One in 2024. 40.0% of Year 11 students at Kelston Boys passed NCEA Level One in 2024.

Year Kelston Asian European Maori Pacific Other
2024 40.0% 55.6% 47.8% 33.3% 35.5%

Kelston Boys' High School is a Violent School

KBHS is a violent school. It is the only school in the country where a student has been killed in a fight between students on school grounds. That attack is still remembered. Notable incidents this year include

The school's team was withdrawn from the Auckland Tag championships after a brawl involving Kelston students at the zonal tournament
A deputy principal was called to fighting involving Kelston students at netball courts. One student was stood down as a result.
Police brought along a paddy wagon and set up three checkpoints outside the school to prevent violence after a home first fifteen game.
Police were required to escort Kelston performers to and from their stages at Polyfest to prevent brawling.
Police intervened in a fight involving Kelston students at the New Zealand Secondary Schools rugby league tournament (won by Kelston). Police escorted the school's Under 15 rugby league team from their final (won by Kelston) at the same tournament.
Video of fights this year at train stations and elsewhere circulate on social media.

Kelston Boys' High School has lost a lot of community confidence

Kelston Boys' had 1,250 students at its peak in the 1980s, 1,100 students in 2010, and 600 in 2022. White flight from the boys' school has been pronounced. There were 371 European students in 2000, but only 22 in 2023.

Rather than trying to meet the requirements of the local community both Kelston Boys' High School and Kelston Girls' College have decided to fill the schools with out-of-zone students.

Both schools introduced zones in 2023. The Tables below show the numbers of in-zone and out-of-zone students at each school as at the March 31 roll return.

Kelston Boys' High School - Inzone and Out-of-Zone Students by Year Level, March 2025

Year Level Total No Zone In Zone Out-of-Zone
9 197 0 96 101
10 172 0 73 99
11 173 0 85 88
12 109 74 17 18
13 105 82 16 7
Total 756 156 287 313

Kelston Girls' College - Inzone and Out-of-Zone Students by Year Level, March 2025

Year Level Total No Zone In Zone Out-of-Zone
9 121 0 62 59
10 120 0 67 53
11 86 0 47 39
12 85 47 18 20
13 90 61 14 15
Total 502 108 208 186

Why we Ended our Consultation

We received a fairly neutral response in our discussions with the Kelston Girls' College community. The main reason we heard for parents sending their daughters to schools out-of-zone was the wish that their daughter attend a co-educational school.

We received a very negative response from some members of the Kelston Boys' High School Senior Leadership Team (SLT). This created an uncomfortable work environment for various staff numbers who supported our tutoring work. When a social media post from a Year 13 student alleged, in respect of a supportive teacher, "and did I mention mr XXX has in on it too. he touched ZZZZ, now Mr YYY wants to give him a hiding", things had gone too far. The school says "due to the nature of the post being outside of an official school website that it sits outside our jurisdiction." We really did expect the school to try and squash malicious rumours about its staff that were being started by students. It has not done so, and this is just another example of the school not providing a safe environment (this time for staff).