Discovery
St George’s is an independent, co‑educational, Anglican day school for years 1‑8 in Whanganui.
Join us and uncover an extraordinary learning environment where our students feel safe, supported, happy and ignited.
The vision for our learners is in keeping with our motto ‘Fidus et Audax’ - ‘Faithful and Daring’ where we encourage risk taking, higher order thinking, inquiry and creativity.
St George’s and Whanganui Collegiate share world class facilities, including the Chapel, the Prince Edward Auditorium, the dining hall, Izard Gymnasium, the swimming pool and H.G.Carver Library.
An Arms‑wide‑ round Approach
Four Strategic Pillars guide our learning community
Sustainability
- • to nurture and sustain our school, our values and its Anglican ethos.
- • to strengthen our faith based education.
- • to respect nature and value the environment and its resources.
- • to create an environment that values diversity and multi-culturalism.
Discovery
- • to personalise the learning experience for each student.
- • our students develop their potential as aspirational, future-focused thinkers and global citizens.
Pastoral Care
- • providing a safe, supportive, encouraging environment to grow and challenge oneself.
- • our happy children will thrive and develop character and key social/life skills.
Community
- • to foster respectful, compassionate relationships within our school whanau.
- • to connect and contribute positively with our wider community.
- • to build student citizenship and service.
At St George’s our Anglican faith underpins the moral and spiritual growth for our community. With kind hearts, kind thoughts, kind words and kind actions, every day our students are making a positive difference to both our school and the wider community.
We treasure our traditions, and these inform our future focus. The children of St George’s grow into citizens we are proud to know.
Julie Gifkins joined St George’s School as the new Headmaster in October 2018. Julie has worked in the Independent School sector for 14 years. She was Head of the ‘Light House’ at King’s School and Head of Junior School at St Cuthbert’s College, both in Auckland.
An experienced educational leader with roles encompassing independent, state and integrated schools, Julie is passionate about Independent School education in New Zealand.
Julie has a Post Graduate Diploma in Educational Leadership with Distinction, a Bachelor of Teaching and a Diploma in Teaching.
Julie is passionate about creating a future focussed learning environment that is responsive and respectful to the St George’s learning community.
Daring and Faithful Learners
We want our students to dream big, be daring and have the confidence to try new things and learn from their mistakes. In other words, embrace discovery. This enables us to grow great citizens who can contribute to building caring and sustainable communities.
The younger generation, Gen A, are more visual, mobile, social, digital and global than previous generations. In light of these characteristics, discovery enables us to be respectful of and responsive to our student’s needs.
Our curriculum is built on the idea of Discovery. It creates a synergy between the Arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, as well as helping develop social and business enterprise. It provides opportunities for creativity, innovation, risk taking and entrepreneurial endeavours.
Our students become more caring, critical and creative thinkers because of this focus.
St George’s promotes a personalised approach to each child’s learning. Our exceptional, experienced teachers, specialist facilities and a stimulating curriculum ensure students learn in a range of academic, personal, social, cultural and sporting areas.
Our dedicated teachers work with our students and their parents to build positive relationships, ensuring a lifelong love of learning.
A child’s confidence, self-belief and happiness are paramount. These attributes are essential for a student to have fun in learning, to discover their passions and try new things. Our students, staff and parents look after each other, ensuring this buoyancy.