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Why It’s Great to Work at Whangaparāoa College!

Starting your work day on the beautiful Whangaparāoa peninsula is just the beginning of a rewarding and gratifying work experience. The college is set in 32 hectares of undulating grassland with a bordering wetland area, and sloping northwest toward Stanmore Bay beach, one of our 15 local beaches. Built between 2004 and 2009, the college has outstanding facilities and extensive grounds.

Whangaparāoa College is very much a community-based school where we “know and grow our learners”. Professional development and opportunities for growth are highly valued - for teachers and support staff. Furthermore, through our weekly professional development sessions, we consistently strive for higher individual and collective efficacy on our shared goals and strategic priorities. We are lucky to have an eager staff who are embracing both our shift to being a dual pathway school - from 2023, we now offer a Māori medium pathway - and our focus on Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as underlying our Effective Teacher Profile. This evidence-based approach supports and enables teachers to grow and become more impactful and fulfilled in their work - which is why so many of us joined this profession.

Furthermore, at Whangaparāoa College, we actively promote hauora. We know that healthy staff are the best staff. While teaching is a challenging profession, our middle and senior leadership team work to mitigate some of those challenges whilst driving a thriving teaching and learning environment, centred on high relationships and high expectations. For those who like statistics - and we do believe in data-driven work - in our 2023 Staff Hauora survey, two thirds of our staff cited the highly collegial environment as a positive influence on their hauora. Three quarters of our staff rated the school’s hauora culture as positive or better than other organisations. Perhaps most importantly, we have seen significant decreases in the past year on some of the common negative influences on hauora. We know clear classroom routines, workable behaviour systems and collective efficacy matter. Here, our staff enjoy a highly collegial environment where all are immersed in a supportive learning environment.

Āhuatanga Whangaparāoa underlies every aspect of school life at the college, and can be thought of as 'the way we do things around here'. Our college values six āhua (characters/traits): Manaakitanga, Rangatiratanga, Tangata Whenuatanga, Orangatanga, Kaitiakitanga, and Whanaungatanga. We believe these are the dispositions that will enable all our learners and staff to be the best versions of themselves. Āhuatanga Whangaparāoa supports good citizenship, morals, and striving to learn and reach one's potential.

If this sounds like a place you would like to work, get in touch.