Kaitāia Primary School is celebrating 150 years of schooling next year, but with around 190 years of teaching there, it’s possibly the longest-running continuous site of education in the country.

The school officially opened in April 1875 and will officially celebrate 150 years of education at the Church Rd site from April 7-10 next year – though learning there goes back even further.

And while the 150th celebrations will be a milestone in itself, the school’s educational roots actually predate its official beginnings in 1875.

The school is located on the same site as the former Anglican mission that was established in Kaitāia in 1834 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Soon after, a rudimentary mission school was built near where St Saviour’s Church stands today.

“Educational activity has taken place on this site for about 190 years – which is likely to be one of the places in the country with the longest history of continuous education, if not the longest,” Kaitāia Primary principal Brendon Morrissey said.

“We’re proud of our school’s history and the part it has played in the lives of children and the wider community who have passed through its doors over the decades. The fact that we’re approaching almost 200 years of continuous educational activity is particularly special.”

Although there is limited information about the day-to-day educational activities that took place at the Kaitāia mission school in its earliest years, other historic mission sites around Northland – today cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga – can fill in some of the gaps.

The Kerikeri Mission Station and Te Waimate Mission Station – both Tohu Whenua – operated schools, and information about them can help shed light on what would have been happening at the Kaitāia Mission School.

“We can be fairly confident that the mission school at Kaitāia would have employed the same methodologies as the mission schools in the Bay of Islands,” Kerikeri Mission Station property lead Liz Bigwood said.

Some of the mission schools’ curriculum content may sound a bit dated to our way of thinking – ‘domestic arts’ for the girls for example, but according to Bigwood though, the missionaries – whether through good judgment or sheer good luck – got some things right.

“Lessons were taught in te reo Māori, and the missionary teacher’s method of ‘Mutual Instruction’ – where senior or more accomplished pupils taught juniors – proved extremely successful, probably because it mirrored whānau-based tikanga where older children cared for and instructed their younger siblings,” she said.

“Attendance was also encouraged by the missionaries who provided a cooked meal to the young pupils who came to school – an example of manaakitanga that also incorporated tikanga. The missionaries also learned to speak te reo – one of their most challenging tasks, but which proved to be one of the most successful steps towards engaging with Te Ao Māori.”

Fostering literacy in te reo among pupils was a priority for the missionaries who were keen to introduce them to Bible teaching in Māori. Under the direction of mission printer William Colenso based in Paihia, the New Testament in Māori – Te Kawenata Hou – was printed from 1836 through to late 1837 with a total print run of 5000 copies.

Shortly after it was first printed, a messenger arrived at Paihia from Te Rarawa chief Nopera Panakareao, under whose patronage the Kaitāia mission operated, with a letter requesting a copy of Te Kawenata Hou. Included with the letter was a one pound gold sovereign to pay for it – the first gold coin Colenso had seen in New Zealand.

Te Kawenata Hou rapidly became a taonga sought after by many Māori around the country – a reflection of the curiosity about the book and its contents, but just as importantly it showed how literacy was growing among many Māori.

At much the same time, the impact of literacy among the mission schools’ young pupils was also becoming increasingly apparent.

Missionary teacher George Clarke described his top scholars as “quite masters of reading and writing”. One such star pupil was Eruera Pare Hongi who attended school at the Kerikeri mission. At the age of 10 Eruera had written a letter to the leaders of the Church Missionary Society in London – under Clarke’s guidance – asking for writing paper and an invitation to visit England.

“Eruera Hongi, a relative of Hongi Hika, went on to become the most prominent Māori scribe of the 1830s before his young life was cut short by tuberculosis in 1836,” Bigwood said.

“He wrote the Māori text for the letter sent by 13 Ngāpuhi rangatira to King William IV in 1831 where, among other things, they asked the King to send laws to govern his British subjects in New Zealand. He was also the scribe for the Māori text of He Whakaputanga, the 1835 Declaration of Independence.”

Another missionary protege was Rongo Hongi, the daughter of Hongi Hika. Living with the Kemp family at the Kerikeri Mission station provided Rongo with some of the abilities needed to navigate the very different worlds of Māori and Pākehā. Rongo would later exercise her independent voice and her mana writing letters to Governor Grey and other leaders.

Mission schools like the one in Kaitāia were turning out students who were increasingly standing with dignity in both the Māori and European worlds – and who were influencing both.

Kevin Matthews, a former Kaitāia Primary School student and great-great-grandson of Kaitāia Mission co-founder Joseph Matthews, has researched journals, letters and other materials from the early days of the mission. He confirms the 190-year continuous education record adding that, for the early missionaries in Kaitāia, this was not their first educational rodeo.

“Joseph had originally helped establish classroom teaching at the CMS Paramatta mission in Australia prior to coming to New Zealand. When he arrived here, he took up teaching responsibilities at Te Waimate Mission under Richard Davis. Mary Ann Davis – Richard Davis’ daughter who would later marry Joseph – also had a teaching role at Te Waimate before helping to establish the Kaitāia mission,” Matthews said.

“Mary Ann was fluent in te reo and had a special relationship with Hongi Hika, tending to the musket wound he received in 1827.”

Mary Ann’s sister, Matilda, was similarly well versed in te reo, and eventually married mission co-founder William Gilbert Puckey. The two families stationed at Te Ahu Kaitāia produced 15 children – all of whom were taught to a high standard, with some becoming teachers themselves.

“Teaching the gospel was one of the main aims of the school – and the flying of the Rongo Pai (Good News) flag represented that aspect of the mission,” he said.

“The teaching was done in te reo. None of the work of the mission could have taken place without the acceptance and participation of the whole community working together and learning off each other – similar to the way sound learning and education works today.”

The journals and papers of Matthews’ great-great-grandfather make for fascinating reading, providing insights into the hardships of life in and around Kaitāia. Illnesses increasingly claimed the lives of many Māori, and inevitably epidemics and other hardships had an impact on school attendance.

“There is a record of Joseph making a trip to Paihia in early November 1853 to pick up the smallpox vaccine, which was stored in clay pipes, to help stem the death rate from the illness. Other beneficial medical practices were introduced to help stop the mortality rate from European diseases, though activities like gum digging – where adults and children frequently worked in wet and even unsanitary conditions – impacted school attendance and public health with diseases like typhoid a grim reality.”

Throughout these seismic social, economic and cultural changes, Kaitāia Primary – and its predecessors – have been a constant presence here bringing learning of one kind or another to the community for nearly two centuries.

“We’re looking forward to celebrating Kaitaia Primary’s 150th anniversary next year as part of that richer heritage of education that has taken place here on this site,” Morrissey said.