The Church College of New Zealand is a private co-educational secondary school sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the school’s ERO Report for 2006, 74% of the student population was Māori and 9% Pacific Island. The underachievement of Māori and Pacific Island in education has been a critical issue in New Zealand for decades. In comparison to their non-Polynesian counterparts, nationally these two groups are still underachieving. However, at the Church College of New Zealand, where the majority of the school roll (a total of 83%), is Polynesian, these two groups experience academic success.



This paper is a literature review and presents a historical picture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand and events leading up to the building of the Church College. For the purposes of this paper, the Church of Jesus Christ will be referred to as ‘the Church’ or ‘the Mormon Church’ (as it is more commonly known), and people of the Church will be referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormon.