Waimea College is a co-educational secondary school in Richmond

Richmond, New Zealand

Richmond, the seat of the Tasman District Council, lies 13 km south of Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand, close to the southern extremity of Tasman Bay...

, Nelson

Nelson, New Zealand

Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....

, 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...

. With a growing roll of 1500+ students from year groups 9-13, Waimea College is equipped with a park-like campus and numerous facilities.

Students of Waimea College are split into four houses named after four famous New Zealanders; they are Rutherford (Green), named after Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford

Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM, FRS was a New Zealand-born British chemist and physicist who became known as the father of nuclear physics...

; Sheppard (Blue), named after Kate Sheppard

Kate Sheppard

Katherine Wilson Sheppard Some sources, eg give a birth year of 1847; others eg give a birth year of 1848. was the most prominent member of New Zealand's women's suffrage movement, and is the country's most famous suffragette...

; Hillary (Yellow), named after Edmund Hillary

Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE , was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest...

; and Cooper (Red), named after Whina Cooper

Whina Cooper

Dame Whina Cooper ONZ DBE , was born Hohewhina Te Wake, daughter of Heremia Te Wake of the Te Rarawa iwi, at Te Karaka, Hokianga,...

. Students are involved in various 'House competitions' throughout the year including the annual 'House Sports Day' event, in which students take part in a range of activities throughout the day in order to win points for their House as well as 'House Song', a competition involving each House performing a vocal presentation which is judged and awarded points. At the end of the school year, House points are tallied and the winning House gains the prize of 'House shield'.