About Linwood College

School Vision:        To provide Learning Pathways to the Future

Through

Raising Expectations

Celebrating Differences

Serving and Leading the Community

Being Innovative, Progressive, Future Focused

Emphasising Knowledge* Skills* Direction*Values

School Values      These are principles, qualities, beliefs, behaviours and attitudes which we consider important. The whole school community collectively worked towards, and agreed on, a common core of values summarised by the word ASPIRE.

Aroha

Support

Pride

Integrity

Respect

Excel

These values define what we stand for and underpin all that we do.

Who We Are

Linwood College (formerly Linwood High School) has a proud history stretching back over 50 years.

Linwood is particularly well known for its strengths in music and the other performing arts, for providing a well rounded education with many different learning opportunities, for its strong pastoral care of students, and for its national reputation as an innovator in developing and providing new learning programmes for students.

Linwood attracts students from many different walks of life from throughout the eastern side of Christchurch city. Some students travel from seaside suburbs whilst others are located closer to the city centre. A good bus network provides transport to and from school, and enables students to quickly reach the city centre, community facilities or the suburbs.

We are proud to be a diverse school catering for students from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Approximately 65% of students are of European background, 20% identify as Maori and 10% are Samoan.

In recent years there have been a number of different indicators of success:

• Total roll has increased from 775 students to over 1000 in recent years
• External examination results show marked improvement in NCEA results and in literacy and numeracy requirements - the Level 2 and 3 results are above the national average for our type of school
• Student numbers participating in inter-school sport have increased over the past 8 years from a low of 14% to 65% last year
• A high degree of student satisfaction as determined by external ‘value added' studies
• A very high morale and strong collegiality amongst staff
• Improved student behaviour as evidenced by fewer suspensions and stand downs (a 50% decrease in suspensions last year compared to the previous year)
• Held in high regard as a ‘turnaround school' by the Ministry of Education, ERO, the former Christchurch College of Education and others as reflected by the number of visitors who come to see our programmes and our changes
• June 2003: Linwood College announced as National Runner Up in the New Zealand Goodman Fielder Secondary School of the Year. (Unfortunately this was the last year this competition was held and we are not able to continue to measure ourselves in this way)
• A very good ERO report in 2005. Excerpts include:

• "...ongoing school improvement has resulted in significant progress including raised academic achievement."
•  "Student achievement information shows that Linwood College is successfully lifting students' achievement."
• "Students in Year 11 now achieve higher results than students in similar schools."
• "Senior students have access to a good range of courses and programmes."
• "The school provides a number of innovative programmes..."
• "Students receive a high standard of pastoral care."

The college website is at www.linwoodcollege.school.nz