In 1882 when the first school on Waiheke Island opened in a room of the Gordon’s house in Te Matuku valley, it was attended by children up to the age of sixteen. Enrolments at Te Huruhi Native School, founded in 1911 included students of seventeen and eighteen. However, there was no provision for secondary schooling on the island until 1954.
For many children the problem was solved by leaving school after Std 6. A few families employed a tutor or governess; some children went to boarding school or took correspondence lessons. In 1948 when the regular daily workers’ boat service began from Surfdale, some students travelled daily to Auckland schools, giving them a fourteen hour school day. This far from satisfactory situation worsened when it was revealed in 1953 that some of the school boys were playing poker, using deplorable language, associating with unsavoury characters on board and drinking below decks. Pressure mounted for the provision of secondary schooling on the island. After a heated public meeting on March 20th 1953, of almost 100 parents with Mr Mountford of the Education Board, Waiheke District High School became a reality.
It opened in February 1954, with 21 students, 16 girls and 5 boys, taught by the first assistant Mr Whitworth with Miss Ponsonby, head teacher of Ostend School, as the Headmistress. Ostend School lost its separate identity and became the primary department of Waiheke District High School. Classes were held in Hartley’s Hall, now the Onetangi Store and Post Office. It was then at least ten metres nearer the road. Many subjects were taken through the Correspondence School, the Onetangi Beach was the playground and sports field, recorder classes were held in the bus shelter nearby, curtains served as walls to divide classes and long drop loos were the order of the day. Cookery and home craft classes were held in the Power Board building at Ostend, woodwork at Ostend school and lifesaving at the Ostend wharf. Miss Ponsonby, still with classes of her own to teach, became a human shuttle co-ordinating the primary and secondary departments, six miles apart and with no connecting telephone. As numbers grew, the Onetangi Community Hall was also used as a classroom, further spreading the school. In 1957 the school moved to its present site in Donald Bruce Road, Surfdale, where £37,000 had been spent building four and a half classrooms (now the administration area and rooms one to five), a sealed area for assembly and court games and a flagpole. Swedes were cropped in one field, gorse flourished in others. It was formally opened by the Hon.E.H.Halstead on April 10th 1957, the Principal now being Mr Whitworth who had succeeded Miss Ponsonby in 1995.
He now had two schools four miles apart (there was no causeway road over the Putiki Estuary), a staff of seven full time and four part time teachers and three classes (Std 4 to Form 2) to teach herself. The Waiheke District High School comprised classes from Std 4 to Form 5 and a roll of . Blackpool School still retained its students to Form 2 and vigorously opposed the opening of a primary block at Waiheke District High School as it preferred the concept of a Form 1 to 6 school but In February 1959, when a new block of classrooms was completed, the primary department was opened. The District High school now had its own Principal, with Blackpool and Ostend being independent, contributing new entrant to Std 4 schools.
The Island’s population decreased in the ten years after 1956, while the roading system extended, so the value of maintaining two primary schools now within two miles of the District High School diminished, although Blackpool with its fine block of buildings, well developed grounds and new swimming pool still favoured a separate Form 1 to 6 school.
In April 1969 the Minister of Education recommended the establishment of an Area School on Waiheke. A well attended public meeting was held to explain this new educational concept and a vote of parents called for. As 69 supported the Area School and only 5 opposed it (none from Blackpool), Waiheke Area School, the second in New Zealand, came into being in 1970. Whereas district high schools had been divided into primary and secondary departments, area schools were to be a single, unified institution with all aspects of administration, organisation and policy planned to serve the school as a whole. Staff were to be appointed to the school as a whole and were to make the best use of their personal resources regardless of the major age level or subject area in which they specialised. It was hoped that area schools would work out an integrated and community based education.
All secondary teachers at the District High School were reappointed with the Head Teacher, Mr John Meyer, becoming the Principal of Waiheke Area School, and all permanent primary assistant teachers who applied were placed in the new school, but the buildings were far from adequate for the 282 students (219 new entrant to F2, 68 F3 to 7). After one year, not one item on the building programme had been completed; no new classrooms, no administrative block, no improvements in heating, sewerage or water services. However, two two-roomed classroom blocks had been shifted from Blackpool and Ostend Schools, four very dilapidated prefab classrooms were brought to the island for temporary primary classrooms and another as an interim staffroom. It was not until 1974 that the library and adjoining five class room block (including music room, typing room and science lab), the open-plan classroom (designed to be a metal-work room) and staffroom were built. Perhaps that was why Waiheke Area School’s formal opening by the Governor General, Sir Dennis Blundell, did not take place until April 5th 1974.
1975 saw four new relocatable classrooms replace the battered prefabs. The local community provided the money for the swimming pool, completed in 1976. In 1980, $390,000 was spent in building the large multi-purpose hall-gymnasium, extending the library and staffroom and upgrading the open plan room. Further relocatable classrooms have been added every year since 1981, including a three room music suite. By 1975 the school roll had reached 391 and from then on it climbed steadily, 451 in 1980, 557 in 1982, and 727 in 1985.
As area schools were never expected to cater for more than 375 students, anomalies and confusion with regard to staffing quotas, building and equipment allocations took up more and more time of successive committees of Management and Principals. When Mr John Meyer resigned in 1980, Mr Jim Kelly was acting Principal for two terms until Mr Alan Bell was appointed in 1981.
In 1985 it became obvious that there were sufficient secondary students to justify the establishment of a Form 1 to 7 school. After lengthy negotiations with the Education Department the Auckland Education Board, the N.Z.E.I., the P.P.T.A. and public meetings, the people of Waiheke chose to have a separate High School and Primary school. Waiheke High School opened on February 3rd 1986 with a roll of 330 students from Form 1 to Form 6. Its Principal is Mr Frank Soloman. An extensive building programme to upgrade existing school buildings will be spread over the coming two years. Te Huruhi Primary school, with a roll of 400 students from new entrant to Std 4, is on the adjoining site, so a continuation of the close relationship between primary and secondary school students on the island is still a reality.
-- Helen Aldridge
