Wednesday evening 26 January 1876 Yaldhurst School was officially declared officially open and ready for instruction.
The "Lyttelton Times Newspaper" however stated that the School committee had been formed as early as April 1874 with Mr John Taylor as the first Chairman. There were frustrations and delays and much correspondence passed between the Committee, the Education Board and the Minister of Education before there was any real progress. The first School Committee meeting was held at the Talbot Arms Hotel in April, 1874. Mr Taylor was the elected first Chairman (today to be politically correct would be called the Presiding Chairperson.)
There were many delays until the Provincial Government purchased two acres (1.2 hectares) of land for £60 pounds, which today would be equivalent to $113.60, from Alexander Johnston a blacksmith of Yaldhurst on 9 January 1875 and tenders were called for the erection of a school room.
When the annual meeting of householders of the district was held on 11 October 1875, Mr Taylor the Chairman expressed his disappointment to see such a poor attendance with such apparent lack of interest. Mr Taylor was happy to report that the building was underway in the hands of the very energetic men, Messers Painter and Tricket. It was hoped to see the school and the master's (principal) house (next door to existing church) occupied by the end of 1875.
Wednesday evening 26 January 1876 Yaldhurst School was officially declared open by Mr William Rolleston, Superintendent of Canterbury. Over 500 people were present to celebrate the occasion with tea and entertainment.
There were two school buildings known as the "Big Room" and the "Little Room" and each classroom had its own cloakroom. The playground had two large swings. During the first term forty-one students were enrolled under the care of Mr Henry Hookham (51 yrs old) as the School Master who served until May 1882.
The original buildings were replaced in 1968. When the school classroom replacement buildings were being planned and built there was serious consideration to the close proximity of the Christchurch Airport so they were designed to be relocatable in the event they did need to indeed need be moved to another site.The "Little Room" was demolished and the "Big Room" was donated by the Canterbury Education Department to the local Scout group and was moved to a new site at the Yaldhurst Domain at a cost of $400.00, to serve as a Scout Den. After a number of years the scout group disbanded and the building again was redundant. In April 1984 it was purchased by the Yaldhurst Museum and relocated to the Museum premises where it is used as an Education Centre. The original school house sited in the school grounds was destroyed by fire. It was replaced in 1957 by a new school house on a quarter acre site adjacent to St Luke's Church opposite to our school today.
The secret to keeping history alive is to share it with future generations to be reminded of its richness.
Photographer was J.C Tyson of Papanui but sadly picture is undated.