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Wellington High School & Community Education Centre
Māori: *Te Kura Tuarua o Taraika ki Pukeahu*
Wellington High School & Community Education Centre; Māori: Te Kura Tuarua o Taraika ki Pukeahu
Address
	249 Taranaki Street; Wellington, 6011; New Zealand
Coordinates	41°18′03″S 174°46′29″E / 41.3009°S 174.7748°E
Information
Type	State secondary
Motto	Excellence in Learning
Established	1886
Ministry of Education Institution no.	273
Chairman	David Cooling
Principal	Dominic Killalea
Grades	9–13
Gender	Coeducational
School roll	1,618 (November 2024)
Socio-economic decile	9Q
Website	www.whs.school.nz

Wellington High School is a co-educational secondary school in the CBD of Wellington, New Zealand. It has a role of approximately 1500 students. It was founded in 1886 as the Wellington College of Design (later the Wellington Technical School), to provide a more practical education than that offered by the existing schools. In 1905 it became the first coeducational daytime Technical College in New Zealand.^[3] It is one of only two coeducational secondary schools in Wellington (along with Onslow College), and one of only a handful in the country, that does not have a school uniform.

Many of the current buildings date from the 1980s and are in the neo-brutalist style.

Wellington High School, and the institutions from which the current school evolved, have a significant place in the history of public education in New Zealand.

History

Wellington College of Design and Wellington Technical School

What is now Wellington High School was founded in 1886^[4] by Arthur Dewhurst Riley as the Wellington College of Design. It was the first technical school in New Zealand, the students were teenagers who had entered the workforce after primary school and the classes were trade focused and in the evenings. Students paid a fee's to attend.^[5]

In 1891 the school became Wellington Technical School and it moved to its present site on Taranaki Street from Mercer Street in 1922. Riley was a pioneer of technical and vocational education in New Zealand and his views influenced the Manual and Technical Instruction Act of 1900.

Wellington Polytechnic

In 1964 the secondary and tertiary education parts separated, the upper part becoming Wellington Polytechnical School. Wellington Poly has now become Massey University's Wellington Campus. Other technical schools have also gone on to become tertiary institutions, including Auckland University of Technology and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology.

Wellington High School

The secondary school retains a large community education programme.

In 2014, an additional Māori name was chosen to sit alongside the established and venerable name of Wellington High School; "Te Kura Tuarua o Taraika ki Pukeahu". Māori language students were deeply involved in the planning and implementation of the additional name. Taraika is the name of the school Marae. Pukeahu is the area of land on which the school stands. The students presented their idea to the school’s whānau group, Te Whānau a Taraika and the school’s Board of Trustees as well as consultation undertaken with Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o te Ika te mana whenua. The additional name was formally adopted at the school's annual Whakanuia celebration in October 2014.

Current affairs

The School was New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Export Awards Education Exporter of the Year 2004.^[6]

In 2004, the school made the national headlines when students campaigned for the eviction of the Wellington branch of the Destiny Church, which was using the school hall for its services,^[7] with over 50% of enrolled students signing their names to a petition.^[8]^[9]

In 2006, in response to research on Wellington High students,^[10] and an award-winning student video,^[11] Principal Prue Kelly introduced a scheme which allows senior students' first classes to begin at 10:20am (as opposed to 8:45am). This issue has received much media coverage,^[12]^[13] and generated very little controversy. Principal Prue Kelly was confident that this progressive trial in timetable restructuring would "catch on" and other schools would begin to adopt it as well. As well as the senior 10 o'clock start, all years receive a late start on Wednesdays.

In 2016, Wellington High became the first school in Wellington to provide gender-neutral toilets.^[14] WHS converted one floor's separate single sex bathrooms to two sets of gender-neutral bathrooms. The urinals were removed from the boys' bathrooms, and bins added. Signage simply says 'bathroom.' There was a lot of media surrounding the change, and WHS released a media release^[15] requesting that the media accept the privacy of students, writing that they are now "getting on with the business of learning."^[15] Later in 2016, Onslow College converted a block of their toilets to gender-neutral.

Radio station

The school had a student-run radio station, LiveWire, which transmitted at 107.1. It had a range of approximately 4 km. The radio station ceased broadcasting at the end of 2007. In February 2011, the radio station was revived as High-Fi FM. It is operated by students from the school. The radio station still has the same specifications of a 4 km broadcast range and runs 24/7 on 107.3FM.^[16]^[17]

Board of trustees

The Wellington High School board consists of eleven appointed and elected members. It is currently chaired by David Cooling.^[18]

Notable alumni

Matt Benney ISO – civil servant and politician
Ken Blackburn – actor, director
Craig Bradshaw – sportsman, Tall Blacks and Winthrop University
Luke Buda – musician, Phoenix Foundation
Samuel Flynn Scott – musician, Phoenix Foundation
Ben Hazlewood – Singer
Timothy Hyde – magician and writer
Eddie Johnston – musician, Race Banyon and Lontalius
Karen O'Leary - early childhood educator, comedian and television and film actress^[19]
King Kapisi – musician
Helen Kelly – President of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions
Paul Eagle – Former Deputy Mayor of Wellington City, MP for Rongotai.
Tom Larkin – musician, Shihad
Sir Peter Leitch – The Mad Butcher
Len Lye – artist, attended evening art classes at Wellington Technical College (now Wellington High School)^[20]
Robert Miller – Known as Bushwhacker Butch, one half of professional wrestling team The Bushwhackers.^[21]
Willy Moon – Singer and former X Factor New Zealand judge^[22]
Nigel Priestley ONZM – earthquake engineer, professor at University of California
Chelsie Preston Crayford – actress
James Shaw – Male co-leader of New Zealand's Green Party
Maud Winifred Sherwood – artist
Eric Tindill – sportsman, double All Black – cricket and rugby
Grant Tilly – actor, Downstage Theatre, Unity Theatre, films and television
Jon Toogood – musician, Shihad
Sir Jon Trimmer KNZM – ballet dancer
Roland Wakelin – artist regarded as a founder of modern art movement in Australia
Dan Weekes-Hannah – actor
Tandi Wright – actress, Shortland Street and Out of the Blue
Solo Tohi – Part of the Australian/ NZ break dance crew Justice Crew that won 2010 Australia's Got Talent
Eva McGauley (1999–2018) – Activist, founder and CEO of www.Evaswish.com. Established an online charity for those who are victims of sexual harm^[23]

References

^ "New Zealand Schools Directory". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
^ "Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
^ "History – Wellington High School". www.whs.school.nz. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
^ "Wellington Polytechnic". National Library. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
^ Pollock, Kerryn (20 June 2012). "Polytechnics before 1990". Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
^ "Solid Energy Wins Exporter Of The Year". Scoop. 26 July 2004. Retrieved 3 January 2022.
^ "Destiny vows to move on as protest mars birthday". The New Zealand Herald. 30 August 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
^ "Campaign to remove Destiny Church from our schools". Scoop. 23 December 2004. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
^ "Campaign To Get Destiny Church Out Of Wgtn High". Scoop. 20 January 2005. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
^ "Professor Philippa Gander and the Sleep/Wake Research Centre". Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 4 July 2006.
^ "What's happening". Royal Society Te Apārangi.
^ "Senior students switched on after a sleep-in". Archived from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 4 July 2006.
^ "School trials later start time".
^ "Wellington High, Onslow College get gender-neutral bathrooms". Stuff.
^ ^a ^b "Press release" (PDF). whs.school.nz. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
^ "Livewire 107.1". Retrieved 4 May 2007.
^ "The New Zealand LPFM Radio Station Network". Retrieved 4 May 2007.
^ "Introducing The Board". Wellington High School. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
^ Casey, Alex (16 October 2019). "The most interesting woman on NZ TV: Wellington Paranormal's Karen O'Leary". The Spinoff. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
^ "Wellington Waterfront Newsletter". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 8 April 2006.
^ Heagney, George; Gourley, Erin (4 April 2023). "Kiwi wrestling superstar Bushwhacker Butch remembered as a 'rough diamond'". Stuff.
^ "Who are Natalia Kills and Willy Moon?". 3 News NZ. 16 March 2015. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
^ Desmarais, Felix (19 November 2018). "Teen activist and philanthropist fought against sexual violence". The Dominion Post.

Sources

Noel Harrison, The school that Riley built: The story of the Wellington Technical College from 1886 to the present day (ASIN: B0007JSZJ2): The history of Wellington Technical College up to 1961.