Our History

Ko wai tatou? Who are we?

Schooling first started in Okaihau in 1873 in a log hut along the ridge towards Marangai.  However, the dampness in this building was bad for the children’s’ health, so schooling shifted into the house of a local man, Mr Joseph Harrison. Mr Harrison became the first principal of the Okaihau School and in 1874, the first proper school building was opened with twenty-one children.  The original school building was moved down to the Waihou Valley and became the Upper Waihou School, and a new school building was built.  This second building was moved by bullocks to the Okaihau College site in the 1930s and is still used as a classroom (R5).  The room is made of pit sawn kauri.  Okaihau township got busy in the 1910s and 1920s when Okaihau became the headquarters for the Public Works Department who were building the railway line north.  Because of the influx of railway workers, more children moved to the area and more schools were required to educate them.  Schools sprung up in different parts of Okaihau;  

  • Okaihau School operated from 1874 to 1889.

  • Rangi Point School operated in Rangiahua from 1879 to 1944.

  • Maraeroa Native School operated in the Utakura Valley from 1898 to 1962.

  • Upper Waihou School operated in the Waihou Valley from 1888 to 1937.

  • Cook Road School operated at the top of the Utakura Hill from 1890 to 1925.

  • Utakura School operated in the Utakura Valley from 1893 to 1937.

  • Okaihau East School operated on Waiare Road from 1918 to 1937.

  • Okaihau Public Works School operated on Lake Road from 1926 to 1937.

  • Rahiri Native School operated in Rahiri Settlement from 1933 to 1970.

  • Okaihau Consolidated School operated on the current college site from 1938 to 1947.  

  • Okaihau District High School operated on this site from 1947 to 1970.

  • Okaihau Primary School opened in 1970 and is still operational.

  • Okaihau College opened in 1971 on its current site. 

In 1937, the Education Board made the decision to close many of the smaller schools to make one larger “consolidated” school.  This school was established on the current site of Okaihau College.  L Block was opened as a brand-new modern school for country children in the north in 1938.  When the school opened, there were 93 boys and 87 girls in attendance aged from five to sixteen.  In 1940, electricity arrived in Okaihau, by which time there were fifty-seven secondary students at school (Years 8 –12). The centennial celebrations of the Okaihau and Districts schools were held in 1974.  If you have a look, you can find a commemorative plaque on the front of the Administration Block showing that the school was officially opened as a proper college on 7 July 1973.  This was exactly one hundred years after the first school started in Okaihau.  

Over the last few decades, a lot of work has been put into modernising buildings to ensure that our students have the best learning facilities possible.  The Gymnasium was built in 1981, The Science Block was modernised in 2000, Whakarongorua Marae was built in 2009, Rangimarie was built in 2010 and Te Puna Ako was modernised in 2016.  We have also installed beach volleyball courts and a school pool.

Today we have around 350 students in Years 7 – 13 who travel to school in buses from as far away from Kohukohu, Kaikohe, Waima and Horeke.