History

​What is the history of Waerenga-O-Kuri School?

The first school at Waerenga-O-Kuri was opened in 1879. There were 13 pupils in the whole school. Then for reasons unknown, the school stopped running. There are no records of it. Schooling restarted in 1917 in Miss Moorie's home, but today it's the Hall's farm, next door to our school. In 1920 the school moved into the local hotel for four years, and was in a room off the hotel. In 1915 the community decided to start a bus company to help make the children get to school faster and safer.

Back in 1950 there were four schools in the wider Waerenga-O-Kuri district.  They were Pehiri, Tauhunga, Hangaroa and Waerenga-O-Kuri. All combined they had 130 children. But today Waerenga-O-Kuri is the only school open, with 39 children. In 1956 the teacher would ride her horse from Gisborne and stay at Waerenga-O-Kuri for the week until the weekend, when she would ride back to town.

In 1962 our school pool was built and is still there now. In 1990 the Tahunga school kids came to our school because their school shut down. In 1996 there was a senior room and a junior room, but no computer room. Later when the Hangaroa School closed the senior room moved into the old prefab which was transported from Hangaroa. The junior room stayed where it was. Our school was then completely re-styled with a new office area, computer suite, and staffroom.