News Archives

The Saudi children have taught our Year 2 class so many things about their culture, and their presence has encouraged empathy and cultural awareness. All the children now enjoy finding Saudi Arabia on a map because they know people from there.

Jack Dawson teaches Visual Art, Design Technology and Technology to students in Years 3 to 13. Next year he will take on the role of Year 7/8 Dean. Meantime, he’s inspiring future generations of artists and art students with his Instagram account Mrdeezartclass.

ACG Sunderland dad Owen Rodger is Commander of the RNZN Helicopter Squadron. An ‘ambassador’ of the Primary school’s new leadership programme, Owen landed his helicopter at school this week to help teach students about how he got where he is today.

An audience of more than 150 ACG Sunderland Primary school parents, students and staff were captivated by motivational speaker Mike Allsop at this morning’s Parents and Friends breakfast.

ACG Sunderland has started a sports academy for primary students to help aspiring athletes reach their full potential. The initiative is focused on students in Years 4-6 who represent the school in a sport, participate in running club, and achieve set fitness targets.

Erin performed her original song ‘Seasonal Lovers’, earning her a spontaneous Special Award from American National Poetry Slam Champion Ken Arkind.

Tongan students at ACG Sunderland are commemorating Tongan Language week by wearing ta’ovala or kiekie to school, and it is a week in which they can express their pride in their Tongan heritage.

ACG Sunderland Computer Science teacher Margot Phillipps has a personal interest in programming for girls, having co-founded Programming Challenge 4 Girls (PC4G) in 2009 – an initiative to allow girls to experience the fun of programming, and to engage them in the subject before they make their senior high school subject choices.

“They have brought new perspectives to class discussions and new dishes to shared lunches. Some faced a shock in moving from an Arabic language to an English language context, but they will return home considerably more fluent than they came.” – Dr Gregory Olsen, ESOL teacher

Tessa Cavell has recently been selected from more than 100 applicants to participate in the Fiji Village Medical Project in 2019, a non-profit student initiative that aims to improve health outcomes in rural Fijian villages.

ACG Sunderland has cemented its reputation as West Auckland’s leading secondary school, following the recent release of Metro magazine’s Best Schools list.

Our students chose to support the Cancer Society with a fundraising movie night this term. Head student leaders Geonwoo Kim and Alayna Bradbury explain their motivation.

The whole school took part in our annual on-site cross country last week despite wet and muddy weather conditions. Students ran distances ranging from 0.5km to 3km, according to age.

Family is an important part of life at ACG Sunderland. It’s something we celebrated recently at our Grandparents and Special Friends day, where we spoke to a few ACG Sunderland grandparents about their perception of the school.  

ACG Sunderland band Moon Children took part in Auckland central’s regional Smokefree Rockquest final at the Dorothy Winston theatre this weekend, nailing their performance.

Hexagon Dream. The Blockheads. Moon Children. The Intimidators. Just a few of the nine ACG Sunderland bands competing at this month’s Battle of the Bands – a record for the school. The school competition, set up nine years ago is designed to give young aspiring musicians a chance to perform. Bands can perform originals or…

A WeChat group for Chinese families at ACG Sunderland has grown to more than 80 members since it started in 2017 as a tool to connect the school’s Chinese community.

Science Faculty Co-ordinator Teresa Barlow went to a convent school where girls would get the cane and have to pray for forgiveness if they were boastful – so it’s easy to understand why she doesn’t like to talk about herself.  

Six students and a teacher have become qualified PADI open water divers after completing a co-curricular scuba diving course through ACG Sunderland.

Two students from ACG Sunderland’s 2016 graduate class are on track to become doctors after being accepted into medical school.