Albany Junior High School
Encyclopedia
Albany Junior High School is situated in North Harbour
North Harbour, New Zealand
North Harbour is the name of a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located 12 kilometres north of the city centre, to the south of the suburb of Albany, close to the northern edge of the city....

, Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, 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...

. Opened in 2005, it was the first purpose built Junior High in New Zealand. The concept of a junior high school, although common in the United States, is controversial in New Zealand. Two more junior high schools are being built in Manukau
Manukau
Manukau City was a large territorial authority in Auckland, New Zealand. The city was sometimes referred to as South Auckland, but this term did not possess official recognition and did not encompass areas like East Auckland, which was previously within the official boundaries of Manukau City...

, and there are five others already operating.

It caters for years 7-10, after which most of the students will move on to the nearby Albany Senior High
Albany Senior High School
Albany Senior High School is situated in North Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand.Opened in February 2009, it is New Zealand's first state senior high school.-Location:...

, which opened in 2009.

The bell is an unusual electronic bell, consisting of native birdcall, and is different in areas of the school. The bell often lasts several minutes, and in the atriums is not heard quickly through the squawk of noise (especially on rainy days) and is often noticed more by everyone that heard gets up.

Blocks

The blocks are named after native New Zealand birds. So far four of the planned five have been built- Kiwi
Kiwi
Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...

, Makomako, Ruru
Southern Boobook
The Southern Boobook , also called the Mopoke, Morepork, Ruru or Tasmanian Spotted Owl, is a small brown owl found throughout New Zealand, Tasmania, across most of mainland Australia and in Timor, southern New Guinea and nearby islands.The bird has almost 20 alternative common names, most of which...

, and Tui. Each has a series of normal classrooms, some specialised classrooms (such as science labs or art rooms), a communal kitchen with hot water, a fridge and a microwave, and a courtyard.

Buildings (Non whanau blocks)

Current buildings located on the premises are
-PAC (Performing Arts Centre), currently being lengthened), this is a small hall/gym that has chairs and a full data-projection system. This is where most drama lessons are held.
-Gym, the gym is large and is used for sports (both storing and practical use) and inside is the sports co-ordinators offices and changing rooms. Because of its size, it is used for the school prize-givings and when the entire school has their full school assembly. In it is two data-projection screens and a wireless microphone.
-Admin, the "office" of the school. Inside is two public desks (the main one at the front for visitors and the one at the back for students), a nurse, councillers, the boardroom, offices of important people and learning support (as well as many others). It's the same building as the library and the staffroom.
-The staffroom is the place that staff go during their lunch hours. Inside is some chairs and tables, a kitchenette, a board for relieving and a data-projection.
-The library is a great place, it has 10 computers for free use and the two OPAC computers as well as A20 (a computer room). All the books are new and there is a lot on every subject. A lot of chairs are placed around the room, padded "boxes" and padded chairs up by the fiction and down the end (near non-fiction, behind the computer terminals) are desks (also with padded chairs). All the chairs are padded in green or turquoise suede.

Construction

Currently AJHS is at its prime with a recently built music department with sound proof practise rooms, a dance studio, sound proof classrooms it also has a large keyboard room for practice. The project(s) are rumoured to be about $9.5m-$10m.

Students

There are currently nearly 1200 students attending, and even more enrolled for next year. The average number of students per class is around 30.

Democracy Within The School

From each whanau class (similar to a form class except with 4 different year groups) is one Whanau Council representative. Any ideas anybody has in that whanau class is passed to the counciller and they bring it to the whanau council. The whanau council tries to make it happen, but if it's out of their reach they pass it to the student council. The student council does not have as much involvement with students as the whanau councils.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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