Our History
Manukau Christian School was established in 1987 with a small core group of students and was known as St Andrew's Christian School.
Mr Ross Thompson, the pastor of the St Andrew's Presbyterian Church at the time, was pivotal in setting up the school. Along with parents who sought to be faithful and obedient to the Lord and who wanted an education for their children that was consistent in all aspects with the Christian faith, our school was born.
Our first teacher was Mrs Kay Coulthard (who is still employed on a part-time basis) and our principal, Mr Shane Kennedy has been employed since 1992. He was a parent member of the school's founding committee in 1987. The school has grown and flourished over the subsequent years.
In 2005 we relocated to our new site at Rogers Road and became known as Manukau Christian School. This name reflects our geographical location and the large area that comprises our school community. The school is a private, non-denominational Christian school, catering for pupils from Year 1 to Year 8.
The school has a strong and well-established reputation for teaching core subjects thoroughly and comprehensively. We focus upon establishing a foundation of learning and knowledge that will enable children to excel later at senior and tertiary schools. We measure our children against international benchmarks as set in the Cambridge Checkpoint system to ensure that our pupils are benefiting from "best practice" educational standards and processes.
Cambridge Preparatory School
There is strong and growing interest for students at senior levels (years eleven through thirteen) to qualify under the internationally recognised Cambridge International Examination system. This system provides curriculum and qualifications that are recognised throughout the world, whereas the New Zealand NCEA system is recognised only in New Zealand.
In order to do well at Cambridge exams in later school years it is essential that a good educational and scholastic foundation is laid in the early years. By linking in with Cambridge in our curriculum and achievement standards and by using the Cambridge Checkpoint system, we are able to offer a comprehensive preparatory education for pupils to excel at Cambridge International Exam- inations in years 11 through 13.
It is important that children start early to get a good foundation. We have found that where pupils transfer to Manukau Christian School out of the state system in years six, seven, and eight, their work standards and educational levels are usually well behind pupils who have been grounded in MCS from the early years. This requires intensive remedial work. In some cases the gap is never able to be closed.
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