Our School

It was in March 1877 when Mr. Robert Graham held a petition for a new school. During that time, facilities for education were already provided by the schools at Mt. Hobson, Tamaki West, Onehunga and Panmure. On May 27 of the same year, the first meeting was held at the Ellerslie Hotel and it was then that the school committee was elected. The construction of the school began sometime in June and we opened our doors to parents and students in November 12, 1877. Mr. Thomas Howells was the first principal of the school in 1878 and in June of 1880, they bought a four-roomed cottage for the staffroom.

After 2 years, the roll had reached around 150 and there was a need to build a new classroom. After a few years, the roll continued to grow that it was difficult to accommodate everyone in the school. Our rooms back then, were uneven in size which leads us to use the largest room for four standard classes. The Board accordingly applied to the government for a new classroom and our plea was approved in 1910. The new classroom was built a year after.

By October of 1913, we only had enough room to accommodate 304 students and we had 395. There was the problem of overcrowding again. The Board came up with the decision that we needed a separate infant department and our request was granted in January 1914. The modern system for drainage was installed in 1926 and in 1930, we already have our own dental clinic. We had the electric lighting installed in 1936 and applications for new classrooms were submitted in 1938 and 1939. We received the grant for these new classrooms in 1940 and we were able to use them on August 4, 1941. Our Assembly Hall was built in 1956.

We had our playground extended in 1955. We had it extended to the area behind the Bowling Club which includes access to the Main Highway. In 1957, we had a swimming pool constructed for the use of staff and students. Our school continued to grow with the construction of new buildings and facilities – caretaking shed, new toilets, furniture storage, side entrance, etc. There was a rapid growth in our roll in 2002 and with this, we had more constructions and improvements.