St Heliers School history

Welcome to St Heliers School

DSC 0052 St Heliers is a school that strives for excellence. Our aim is to guide and nurture each student to reach their potential in all areas of school life. Integral to achieving this aim is having a close partnership between home and school.

Being a full primary (Years 1 to 8) we are in a unique position to see the development of the students from young bright-eyed 5 year olds to young adolescents. From the earliest stages of their schooling, students are encouraged to be independent, responsible learners.

Older students are expected to look out for younger students. At the start of the year senior classes are buddied up with a junior class to support the children in various aspects of their schooling. This also helps to create the family atmosphere we want at St Heliers.

Craig McCarthny
Principal

S hostoric---st-heliers-bay-beach t Heliers School is a full primary school catering for children between the ages of 5 and 12. On the site there are 31 classrooms, a well-equipped library, a hall and an administration block.

The school has a special place in the history of the District since it was the first public school to be established in the Tamaki area.

In 1877 a small private denominational school run by the Presbyterian Church on what is now the corner of Line and West Tamaki Roads provided the only educational facility in the St Heliers District. The nearest public schools available for children in the Tamaki District were Panmure and Mt Hobson (Remuera).

con building 4 St Heliers residents petitioned the Education Board in 1877 asking that a Public School be established. The Education Board accepted the proposal and authorised the opening of the school on 12 February 1877 in a building in which a private school had been conducted. The first public school built in the District, the new 'Tamaki West' school opened at the beginning of June 1879. It was erected beside St Thomas' Church on a two-acre paddock fronting Kohimarama Road.

For thirty years the one-roomed school remained there. During the 1908-1909 Christmas holiday period the school was moved on wheels by a traction engine to the corner of St Heliers Bay Road and Maskell Street. The school was then named St Heliers School and a new motto 'Sacrifice to Serve' chosen to replace 'Ingenio et Labore' (through talent and work).

St Heliers School remained the only state school in the Tamaki area until the opening of Glendowie in 1952. The motto 'Sacrifice to Serve' was discontinued during 2004.