History of Westmere School

In 1882, a site containing five acres was purchased to provide for future educational requirements for the city. By 1912, the expanding population of the Western suburbs was putting pressure on Grey Lynn, Richmond Road, Bayfield and Ponsonby schools which were all full to capacity.

A grant to provide a school for 170 pupils was approved in 1913 and Richmond West School was opened on 6 July 1914 (now known as Westmere School). The school building was constructed of brick and consisted of three classrooms, a Headmaster’s room and a teacher’s room.

Over the next decade, the area continued to develop rapidly and additional rooms were progressively added to the school to cope with the growing roll. By November 1925, the roll had reached 500 and a grant for constructing two new rooms, which formed the basis of the infant school, was approved.

The school name was change to Westmere School in May 1930, avoiding confusion with Richmond Road School and to be consistent with the generally adopted name of the area.

As with all inner city schools, a majority of the old school buildings were demolished in 1978 (the school hall still remains) and the current school was built to comply with the earthquake building code.

In 2014 work started on the redevelopment of Westmere School. Over the following 18 months the school underwent a rebuild that saw seven new and 11 replacement class spaces built to accommodate  future role growth and the removal and refurbishment of existing buildings with weather-tightness issues.

The project was completed mid July 2015 and our teachers and learners moved into open, flexible learning environments which we call learning studios.