About
Papakura High School was established in 1954 and is built on the mana whenua of Ngāti Tamaoho. The school is a co-educational, Year 9 to 13+ school and part of the supercity of Auckland with easy rail and motorway links to Auckland city to the North and Waikato and Coromandel to the South. Papakura is shortly to become the terminus of the Waikato-Auckland commuter rail service.
We are a diverse multi-cultural school, with just over 60% of our students being Māori, affiliating to a wide range of iwi backgrounds as well as to the mana whenua of this area, the sub-tribes of Waikato-Tainui. The school also has a large Pasifika community, mainly Samoan and Tongan, but also with Cook Island and Fijian Indian communities, and small numbers of other Pacific Island groups. The remainder are of European/Pakeha heritage.
Visiting our school, you cannot help but be impressed by our beautiful physical surroundings. A magnificent avenue of mature oak trees provides a leafy drive or walkway up to the front of the school. As you approach the administration block you also see the school’s beautiful wharenui, Kahurangi, with its rich carvings on both the exterior of the building and on the interior, along with both traditional and modern carvings, beautiful tukutuku panels and rich kowhaiwhai patterns on the rafters. The wharenui has had major renovations in 2019 and is now decorated in contemporary colours. On the other side of the driveway, passersby can see the school's magnificent Fale Pasifika which was contructed in 2019 and a gift to the school from a charitable trust.
