The Board of Trustees would like to consult our school community about the name of our school.

The Board would like to know whether the school’s official name should become:

Te Puna Wai o Waipapa  or  Te Puna Wai o Waipapa / Hagley College

Why does the Board want to find out if we support a name change?
The Board are interested in whether our school community supports changing our name to reflect our taha Māori, our school’s Māori heritage, and the significance of te whenua, the land our school sits on.

Background to our English name, Hagley

Our school’s English name, Hagley, has a link to one of Canterbury’s founders. Our school was named ‘Hagley High School’ in 1966 because of its location opposite Hagley Park. The park was named after Hagley Park in England, the country estate of Lord Lyttelton, the chairman of the Canterbury Association which founded this province. Hagley High School was formed in the 1960s by the amalgamation of two schools, Christchurch West High School [which was on this site] and another high school, Christchurch Technical College [previously on the Ara site]. The name was altered to Hagley Community College in 1991, which is still our official name, although we are known now as Hagley College.

Background to our Māori name, Te Puna Wai o Waipapa

It’s important to understand the significance of our Māori name, ‘Te Puna Wai o Waipapa’. Three decades ago, Ngāi Tahu gifted us the name ‘Te Puna Wai o Waipapa’, which means the freshwater spring of the Waipapa area. This name builds on the important history of the school’s location. Te Puna Wai o Waipapa was - and is - a place with natural springs where in earlier time Māori would come to collect water. In many respects, the role of our school located on this piece of land is similar, with people coming here from across this city for what the school offers as a regional hub for education.

Ngāi Tahu has also given us names for our new buildings that are linked to the theme of water, the name ‘Te Puna Wai o Waipapa’ and the significance of the land the school sits on:

• Auripo, the large hub being built near the Student Centre, is named to represent the swirls seen in a body of water. This represents the creativity of our students and their work, a flow-on effect from one eddy to another.

• The name of the Wainuku hub, at the front corner of the school site, refers to the body of water underground, the reservoir that wells up to the surface. It is a puna whakaaro and a puna mahi - a 'think and work tank'.

• Our Student Centre’s Ngāi Tahu given name is Te Tauihu o te Waka, meaning the figurehead or prow of the canoe.

• Our library’s name, Tāheke, continues the theme. This name refers to the flow of water, the essence of life, and a place where knowledge and enjoyment flow down and refresh.

Taking our time

We need to take our time, so that the Board can consult widely. The Board would like people across our school community to understand the background to the school’s names and are in a position to give informed feedback. We’ll do this over Terms 3 and 4. The Board will look carefully at what our students, parents and teachers have said, then decide if it is going to write to the Ministry of Education to request a name change.
If it takes this step, the Board would need to outline why it is making this request, why a new name is appropriate, and the engagement it has had with its community about the proposed new name and the support from the community for the change.