{"id":160393,"date":"2025-11-29T23:53:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/160393\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T23:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T23:53:09","slug":"new-high-school-in-northlands-mangawhai-marks-first-students-with-native-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/160393\/","title":{"rendered":"New high school in Northland\u2019s Mangawhai marks first students with native trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 30 students are expected next year, she said. The college will keep adding a year level each year as the town grows,<\/a> until it offers Year 7 to 13 by 2030.<\/p>\n

The planting on November 25 took place in the 185ha Mangawhai Hills development<\/a>, an eco development that includes new homes, land regeneration, self-sufficient infrastructure and public recreation spaces.<\/p>\n

Each foundation student planted a native tree, donated by Takana Native Tree Nursery, alongside the public trail. Plaques will also be installed to acknowledge each student.<\/p>\n

Corkin said the students were chuffed to know a tree in their name would be there forever, with the plants being a reasonable size too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tree planting acknowledges that Mangawhai is investing in its young people<\/a> and putting the right infrastructure in place for this town\u2019s future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"MangawhaiMangawhai Hills College Year 9 student Coco Braat was among the foundation students happy to be planting a tree in their name on the walkway.<\/p>\n

Parent Billie-Jo Griffin said families were already experiencing the benefits of local schooling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, students have had to travel outside Mangawhai to attend high school. Now our kids can learn here, with strong ties to the land and the community supporting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

During flash flooding in Mangawhai in 2023, many high school students attending the nearest school, \u014ctamatea High School, were unable to get home<\/a> due to flooding and slips.<\/p>\n

Mangawhai Hills developer Patrick Fontein said integrating education, conservation and public amenities were key aspects of the development, including a network of up to 15km of public walking and cycling trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cProviding land for the college and building recreational spaces around it is a practical way we can play our part in ensuring Mangawhai continues to grow in a well-planned, sustainable way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fontein said the delivery of public amenities in Mangawhai must keep pace with the growing population\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs more families settle here, we\u2019re rolling out self-sufficient infrastructure, nature trails and residential sections so the community has what it needs well into the future. This is how long-term growth should be approached.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 30 students are expected next year, she said. The college will keep adding a year level each…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33846,34609,1259,1888,25812,2959,78,440,55315,22643,22638,126,117,111,43,139,24926,69,79503,3109,4062,3767,1361,10419,105587,102,379],"class_list":["post-160393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-along","tag-backed","tag-community","tag-first","tag-funded","tag-high","tag-in","tag-local","tag-mangawhai","tag-marked","tag-marks","tag-native","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northlands","tag-nz","tag-planting","tag-public","tag-school","tag-students","tag-that","tag-trees","tag-walkway","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}