Wairarapa College - In Step with the Community

Traditionally, the history of Wairarapa College is dated from 1923 when the present Pownall St site was occupied for educational purposes for the first time. The truth is that in a very real sense the development of secondary education in the Wairarapa is much more deeply rooted in time and much more intimately related to the development of the Masterton and Wairarapa communities. Indeed, the acorn from which secondary education was to sprout was embedded in the soil first tilled by the members of the Masterton Small Farms Settlement, a concept based on the ideas of Wakefield which had provision for education and health care at its very kernel.

Some 20 acres in the early town settlement were vested in a trust for 'educational …. and other purposes'. From that point until now the provision of education, at all three levels, has been of substantial community concern in Masterton and the Wairarapa.

From a beginning with the provision of primary education in 1899, interest inevitably grew for a secondary provision. In 1882 the signatures of 50 parents on petition requested the Minister to permit the establishment of a District High School in Masterton, with the intention of providing for education to matriculation level. In 1884 the Masterton Central School became the Masterton District High School and opened in September of that year with 17 secondary students. Success was, however, not guaranteed. The demand for public secondary education waned in the face of a downturn in the economy, which put modest fees beyond the reach of many families and an already established pattern of wealthier families sending their families elsewhere for education.

The enrolment of only 5 secondary pupils in 1885 brought the collapse of the initiative by the end of that year.

Not until 3 March 1902 was the District High School re-established at Central School and in 1904 the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Richard Seddon, came to Masterton to open a substantial new brick and concrete building, purpose built for secondary education. This building was to remain as the centre of academic secondary education until 1922 at the end of which year it closed for its pupils to enrol elsewhere in 1923.

The foundations of an academic tradition in secondary education were well laid at the DHS in the 20 years of its existence. Amongst its old students can be listed a Rhodes Scholar, a Professor of Philosophy at Canterbury University, Professor Ivan Sutherland, and a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London - Professor Richard Barrer. Perhaps the most significant pupil of the District High School was however, Olive Rose Sutherland , MA. (Hons). From pupil she became a teacher at the District High School, later at the Wairarapa High School and yet again at Wairarapa College. In her person she represents the continuity of secondary education and a proud focus on excellence, whether in classroom or on field. Masterton District High School sports teams featured large in the Wairarapa of their day.

While the struggle went on to establish academic secondary education at the DHS, efforts were also being made to establish technical classes to meet what were perceived as the skills needs of the district. As early as the year after the first demise of the District High School a demand emerged for the formation of Technical classes, on a part time basis, very often with classes outside working hours. It was not, however, until 10 years later that the first Technical School Committee was formed in 1896 meeting for the first time on Monday 3 August. Alterations to the Drill Hall provided four class rooms and three part time instructors were appointed.

During its early years the young school had a hard struggle to survive. But grow it did and moved to more expansive rooms in part of the old Post Office, and to a Dixon St workshop. More subjects were added to the curriculum including Civil Service examination subjects and City and Guilds work. In 1907 with the District High School just reformed, a public meeting was called at which the Mayor proposed the building of a Seddon Memorial Technical School. Funding for this was achieved through Trust Lands Trust grant, voluntary contribution and Government subsidy. The resulting building on Dixon St was opened in December 1908 and still stands.

A further burst of expansion followed. By 1914 twenty-two classes were in operation and the total roll was about 200 part-time students. After World War I expansion continued with domestic science courses, advanced accountancy and engineering classes, amongst others, being added, and day classes were provided though still on a part-time basis. Not until 1922 were the first full time classes established. Twelve years later in 1934, the school was gazetted by the Department as a Technical High School which put it officially on a par with Wairarapa High School. In three years from that date the school was to cease its existence in 1937.

But before that time other major developments were to take place, and years of debate. No sooner had the District High School been established and the Seddon Building opened, than demand grew for a separate academic high school of full status. Inevitable debate ensued complicated by the demand and provision for an agricultural college on land made available at Taratahi. By 1918, however, the debate had become clearly defined as between an academic high school and the continued development of the Technical School, gazetted as a Technical School in 1921.

It was inevitable perhaps that provision for both technical and academic education should develop in parallel. In 1919 the Minister of Education of the day visited Masterton to look at possible sites for a new full High School. As a result the 30 acres of land in the Pownall St block were purchased in 1922 for $4,552. In the following months the distinctive brick buildings, with slate roof, were built. At its opening in February 1923 the front and south wings were completed. The North wing was build over the following months. Today only the front facade remains of this original building.

The first Principal of the new school, Dr Uttley, speaking at the opening, made his vision for the new school quite clear. He saw the school developing on the lines of such 'name' schools as Auckland Grammar, New Plymouth High, Wellington College and Waitaki Boys High School. Like these it should have at its heart a boarding establishment. Like these it would focus on character development, and the playing fields, where school spirit and pride would be developed and maintained.

In the pursuit of this vision many obstacles were to be surmounted. A major difficulty was to convert the new, empty and underdeveloped site to one fit for the vision of the college. Playing fields had to be cleared of stones and developed; a pavilion was an obvious necessity; cricket wickets were then formed, tennis courts erected (1924), a library collection developed. To assist with the funding of this a Parents' Association was formed and immediately started the fund-raising which has been a feature of the school ever since.

By the middle of the 1920's the two established secondary schools faced each other across the town, each by today's standards small in number, each supported by its advocates, and each determined to succeed. In an attempt to regulate this very competitive and potentially socially divisive situation the establishment of a Wairarapa Secondary Education Board to govern the two school was agreed. It did not, however, succeed in lessening either the 'debate' or the tensions. It did, however, provide an appropriate forum for the debate.

In addition, national developments were bringing new influences to bear on future development decisions. Amongst these were: a desire for a greater uniformity of state secondary education; an extension of free compulsory education at the secondary level which increasingly made it common place for young people to have at least 2 years of secondary education; discontinuance of the Certificate of Proficiency in 1936 which meant that all children had the right to access free secondary education, with the state assuming the full obligation to ensure the adequacy of facilities for this change; the introduction of the School Certificate examination in 1934 which was intended to redress the balance between subjects as a preparation for University study, on the one hand and vocational and technical subjects, art and culture, on the other. It was increasingly clear that secondary education had a value in its own right, and that the term 'secondary education' subsumed both traditional academic and technical/vocational subjects.

But this was not necessarily the view either on the Wairarapa Secondary Education Board or in the community. Those who believed that the demarcation between academic and technical education should be removed were countered by an equally strong demand that technical education should be retained as a separate independent type of learning. Division within the Secondary Board, petitions, a deputation to the Minister and proposals to rebuild the Technical School and give it more appropriate facilities, were features of what was increasingly a faction fight in the early 30's.

By 1935 elections at local and national level were to bring the issue to a head. Locally the stronger advocates of amalgamation had lost their seats on the Board, which now favoured separate academic and technical schools and their support for the proposal to rebuild the Technical School on the existing site seemed to reflect the opinion of a majority of parents. But in the end this counted for nothing. The election of the Labour Government meant the decision would rest with Peter Fraser, Minister of Education, who believed that technical and academic divisions were artificial, that secondary education should, in the one school, provide for all the learning needs of young people.

The foundation stone for the new amalgamated school, Wairarapa College , was laid on March 1 1937. The facilities to be provided were as modern as any in the country and compensated for the loss many parents felt for the closure of the Technical School; the original technical block build at the College must have been the realisation of all the dreams of the Technical High School staff, and remained the envy of many schools through to the 1960's.

The school opened in 1938 with 521 students on the roll, a new Principal, and a staff drawn from both previously existing schools, but less in number than the total of the two. The new College was able to develop a relatively high degree of subject specialisation with the staff, the buildings and facilities provided to cater for the now almost universal intake of pupils.

Although not the first school of its type the new College was in many ways a trail-blazer for co-education featuring both technical and academic courses. It represented in a tangible form the educational philosophy of the first Labour Government. Its multi-lateral course structure made it possible to achieve a goal of educational equality of opportunity, in the hope to develop each individual to full potential. It was, further, a model which was then replicated throughout the country in the next 30 years as population growth and expanding demand for secondary education to increasingly higher levels led to the building of schools of this type in communities throughout the country, including the Wairarapa.

These developments reached their apogee in the 1960's. Until that point the 'new' college with its hostels and train pupils, along with the small District High Schools in every settlement south of Woodville, had largely met the secondary education needs of the whole Wairarapa. The post war 'baby boom' and the changes in educational thinking produced by the Thomas Report and a number of educational development conferences produced further change. The provision of the much enriched curriculum, containing multiple options to meet the educational needs and interests of all pupils, required schools of sufficient size to attract the multi-skilled staff required. The small district high schools were replaced by new co-educational multilateral colleges at Greytown (Kuranui College) and Pahiatua (Tararua College).

These new schools did not, however, relieve pressure in Masterton. The Wairarapa College roll was now upward of 1140 pupils. The optimum facilities of earlier years were now woefully inadequate. The long term future of secondary education in Masterton again became an issue, which was to occasion as much heat and debate as in earlier years.

The Department saw an opportunity for further experimentation in education structures; and met with community opposition all the way. A first proposal was to build a quite separate school on and beyond the old gymnasium site to provide separate girls and boys' schools side by side. The community made it quite clear that it wished to retain co-education. A second proposal was to create a junior and senior school, again on the same site, each with its own Principal and a 'super' Principal in over all charge. Again the community balked in favour of two quite separate schools of approximately 800 students each.

The community voice was acceded to. Makora College (later Makoura) was built on the mid 1960's in the eastern side of town and Wairarapa College was launched on a rebuilding programme which was to continue into the 1990's Administration for the two colleges was vested in one Board of Governors, the Masterton Secondary Schools Board, which was a flash-back to the old Wairarapa Secondary Education Board of the 1920's & 30's. The intention behind the single Board was very much the same as the earlier intention; to ensure that future development was harmonious, and to ensure the policy of intention of 2 similarly sized schools, so that no students would be disadvantaged.

Events, however, have destroyed this policy intention. As sometimes fickle community opinion changed roll limitation and enrolment policies were imposed on both schools, the Ministers of Education of the time insisting on tandem development, and the original community decision.

This governance policy changed again in the late 1980's when the 4th Labour Government introduced the 'Tomorrow's Schools' changes which completely separated the two schools, requiring each to have its Board of Trustees. The changes for the College have been immense, summed up in the following data snippet. 'The Masterton Secondary Schools Board had held the roll during the last years of 1980's at around the 850 figure. The Board of the day had discretionary expenditure of $140,000 annually. In 1997 the Board turnover (including salaries monies) was close to $6.5 million with a roll of 1100 in round figures." In addition staffing ratios had improved substantially since the school was last of this roll size.

More significant educational changes have also taken place in the last 30 years, as has happened throughout the country, led by a demand to liberalise the curriculum. The old course structures were swept away, and their contents became optional subjects; non examination subjects were introduced, and the streaming of students on academic ability all but disappeared. This loosening of curricular structures was continued through to the late 80's as the goal was a more individual focus of student study. The dictatorship of the timetable was greatly weakened by the computer, which permitted much greater flexibility. It was not uncommon for a senior student to be working at several levels. This sort of flexibility eventually made the form nomenclature redundant, students were classified according to their years in education. And more and more of them stayed until Year 13.