Southern Cross Campus

Story

Southern Cross Campus is a composite school that caters for students in Years 1-13 in the suburb of Mangere East in Auckland, New Zealand. The school has deep ties to the Mangere East community by providing education, facilities, and programmes for the wider use of the whole school. It is a Māori and Pacific Islands ethnic school, with students of European, Asian, and other ethnicities as a 0.5% minority.Southern Cross Campus is a fairly new school to Auckland, by being an institute amalgamated with three previous schools in the area: Southern Cross Primary School, Mangere Intermediate School, and Nga Tapuwae College. Southern Cross Campus was founded by Terry Bates, the first Campus Director of the school. It now comprises four schools: Southern Cross Junior School, Southern Cross Middle School, Southern Cross Senior School, and Te Kura Maori o Nga Tapuwae .HistoryThe formation of the Campus began to take shape after a decision made by the New Zealand government's Ministry of Education concern for the school. Mr Terry Bates, an educational advisor of the Ministry, implemented an idea that the three schools in the area should integrate to create a seamless branch of education to cater for the students of this community. The decision was taken to the Ministry, and was then passed, seeing that this school would be the first of its kind in New Zealand.After years of planning from the early 1990s, the Board Members of all the schools were disbanded, and a new Board was set to cater for all four schools, chaired by the late Ms Levuana Tanuvasa. Mr Bill McCook was the Commissioner of the Campus, and his role was to oversee the plans for the new school and to also make sure that the school was meeting government standards and satisfaction. Southern Cross Campus was born in 1995, and officially opened in 1998.