Rotorua Boys High School (RBHS) was in the news last week principally because of Danny Lee’s win in the USA Amateur Open.

But as the Sunday Star Times revealed in the weekend it has more strings to it’s bow than a golfer who has only lived in New Zealand for nine years.

Their stats for similarly graded schools are impressive:

1. Some years pass when none of the 952 students are ever sent home for misbehaving
2. 50.4% of RBHS students passed Level 3 NCEA compared to 37.4% at decile four schools nationally
3. Nationally 1 in 4 students skipped an NCEA exam – at RBHS it is 1 in 7

They have a fulltime director of leadership. Every Year 9 boy spends two hours a week learning leadership skills. They learn team building and explore integrity and honour.

Principal Chris Grinter runs the decile four school like a business, where every student is treated like an employee – they use a rigorous seven step process for discipline of students.

Like any good business they have succession strategies in place to replace staff. The replacements come from current students. If a student is recognised as having the right skills to teach and lead then they are followed throughout their tertiary education and then shoulder-tapped to come back.

The results speak for themselves.