Rutherford College, Auckland

Story

Rutherford College is a co-educational state secondary school on the Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, New Zealand. It is named after New Zealand-born nuclear physicist and chemist Lord Ernest Rutherford.HistoryIn 1948 the north-western sector of Auckland began to develop as a major suburban area. At that time the then Education Department owned an area of twenty-one acres of undeveloped land lying between Te Atatu North highway and the northern side of the Henderson Creek. This land was set aside for a new secondary school to service the rising population of the Te Atatu Peninsula and farming areas to the north. A further vacant block of three acres was acquired and added to the whole in 1960 and the construction of a multi-course co-educational secondary school facility began.An open meeting was held on 29 June 1960 in the Public Hall at Te Atatu and it was decided that the new Te Atatu High School would be placed under the control of its own Board of Governors. At a Board meeting on 14 September Mr A.E.E. Clark was appointed from forty-eight other applicants as the first principal and later that month the school name was decided.Because of the large number of contributing Primary Schools and the wide area served, it was felt that parochialism should be avoided by naming the school after a famous New Zealander, namely Lord Rutherford of Nelson. Mr R.E.K. Barton was appointed First Assistant, and Miss P.M. Corston the Senior Mistress. A Governing Board was also appointed. The Planning of transport, enrolling procedures and uniforms was undertaken. As a result, the Board was able to call a parents’ meeting in the Te Atatu Public Hall on Monday 28 November, at which new staff members were introduced, the school uniforms displayed, and proposed transport routes given.