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We’re currently building this section as we gather and shape the rich story of our school.
Our team is working across several areas, including records of high achievers and sporting successes while progressing towards a comprehensive digital archive. There’s plenty more to come. What you see here is just a small glimpse of the work underway, and we look forward to continuing to grow and share our history with our wider school community over time.
Key Historical Timeline
- 1901: Waihi School became Waihi District High School.
- 1932: Rebuilt as a District High School/Intermediate.
- 1954: Established as Waihi College (Forms 3–7).
- 1959: Moved to the current site on Kensington Road
- 1976: Extended to include Forms 1 and 2.
This change in 1976 allowed the Intermediate-aged students to return to the college roll.
Teaching at secondary level in Waihi commenced in 1901 when Waihi School became Waihi District High School. This was on the site where the Central School now is and it burned down in 1931. The rebuilt school was opened as Waihi Intermediate with a secondary department attached. The principal was Mr F R Slevin, a former Waihi student. Mr D E Swinton became principal in 1947 and, in 1953, after strong representation to the Minister of Education, Waihi College was established as a full secondary school, with an intermediate department attached. The Waihi College Board of Governors was established in 1957 and in 1958 work commenced on the site where the present college is situated. Staff and pupils moved to the new buildings in September 1959 and the college was officially opened on 11 March 1960 by the then Prime Minister, Walter Nash. The intermediate school remained at Moresby Avenue and sixteen years later Forms 1 and 2 students returned to the college roll.
Key Milestones & Current Stucture
The school has undergone several structural changes since its early foundations:
- 1901: Secondary-level teaching began when Waihi School became Waihi District High School.
- 1932: Following a fire that destroyed the previous school in 1931, a new building opened as Waihi Intermediate, with a secondary department attached.
- 1954: The school was established as Waihi College, gaining status as a full secondary school (Forms 3–7) with an intermediate department attached.
- 1959: The secondary department moved to its current site, while the intermediate school remained separate at Moresby Avenue.
- 1976: Sixteen years after the move to the new site, students from Forms 1 and 2 (now Years 7 and 8) were reincorporated into the college roll, making it a Forms 1–7 (Years 7–13) college.
Current Structure
Today, Waihi College continues to operate as a co-educational secondary school for Years 7 through 13.
- Junior School (Years 7–10): Students in years 7 and 8 are currently based in specific “Waka” (learning hubs)—Year 7 in Tainui Waka and Year 8 in Te Arawa—where they focus on core subjects and rotational technology and art classes, while students in years 9 and 10 share the school with our seniors.
- Senior School (Years 11–13): Students at this level work toward the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Levels 1, 2, and 3.
Archiving
In 2023/2024, our hall underwent a significant refurbishment. The project included a full repaint, the installation of a beautiful Matariki constellation feature, refreshed values posters, and new electronic blinds.
As part of this upgrade, the historic photographs that once lined the hall were carefully removed. Many were beginning to fade, and we had reached capacity for displaying new additions. These treasured images are now being thoughtfully archived by our librarian, Mrs Sutton. Digital archiving is a detailed and time-intensive process, and it will take some time to complete. The work involves:
- Carefully removing each photograph from its frame. Assessing image quality to determine whether it can be digitised as is, or whether restoration or replacement is required. In some cases, Mrs Sutton is consulting national archives or contacting family members to source higher-quality originals.
- Scanning each image for digital preservation.
- Verifying and recording all relevant information, including names, dates, achievements, year levels and team details.
- Updating our website’s library archive system to align with national archiving standards.
- Uploading each image with comprehensive tagging and links to ensure it is fully searchable. For example, a single sports photograph must be connected to each student’s name, the team, the sport and the year.
- Publishing the completed archives through the Library section of our website for public access.
Once this work is complete, members of our Waihi College community — past and present — will be able to search High Achievers, Head Students, Sports Honour recipients and more from anywhere in the world. Looking ahead, we also hope to create a rotating slideshow of historic photographs for display on our foyer kiosk. This will allow visitors to enjoy a visual celebration of those who have come before us, alongside the fully searchable digital archive.
Honours Boards
As part of our ongoing work to update and preserve the history of our kura, we are in the process of creating a new Head Students Board and a Sports Honours board to be placed in our Hall. We are keeping the existing DUX and Honours boards in the foyer, as they still look great and have capacity for more names to be added.
We welcome support for the creation of our new boards. If you or your whānau are interested in sponsoring one of these special pieces of our school’s history, please let us know — we would be truly grateful for any contribution that helps bring this project to life.
Below is a sample of how they will look when completed:
Head Students
| Year | Head Students |
| 1954 | M Edwards & K Steel |
| 1955 | A Jones & E McKinney |
| 1956 | J Henbest & B Faville |
| 1957 | D Kinns & E Heath |
| 1958 | C Longbottom & R Baanders |
| 1959 | A Grant & D Leach |
| 1960 | A Henbest & J Silcock |
| 1961 | P Larsen & R Steel |
| 1962 | S Reehal & C Bertelsen |
| 1963 | L Orr & B Jones |
| 1964 | D Hoyle & A McLeod |
| 1965 | C Lee-Johnson & J Cowern |
| 1966 | J Macgregor & I Gunn |
| 1967 | K Hoyle & B Morrison |
| 1968 | R Sisterson & G Lane |
| 1969 | R Bjerring & J Stevenson |
| 1970 | M-E Pipe & G Williams |
| 1971 | K Parker & G Potier |
| 1972 | K Parker & L West |
| 1973 | A Williams & J Bluett |
| 1974 | No appointment |
| 1975 | J Griffioen & V Niukapu |
| 1976 | C Butcher & J Royal |
| 1977 | C Butcher & T Butcher |
| 1978 | A Pattillo & B Dick |
| 1979 | S Avery & N Robinson |
| 1980 | K Patillo & M Tribble |
| 1981 | M Martyn & D Bain |
| 1982 | S Weld & C Kennett |
| 1983 | S Giles & R Schaare |
| 1984 | T Burton & J Griffiths |
| 1985 | P Miers & K Quarrie |
| 1986 | N Cummings & H Locke |
| 1987 | C Morgan & D Bradley |
| 1988 | L Aken & M Frewyn |
| 1989 | C Bailey & M Johns |
| 1990 | L Bratton & M Bradshaw |
| 1991 | F Jansma & M Harris |
| 1992 | C Mulhern & J Dean |
| 1993 | J Riley & J D Pickford |
| 1994 | A McGill & D Carroll |
| 1995 | S Jansma & J Ballinger |
| 1996 | S Hale & J I Pickford |
| 1997 | L Cox & M White |
| 1998 | G Kurukaanga & L Cox |
| 1999 | H Walker & R Geor |
| 2000 | S McDonald & B Coe |
| 2001 | S-K Coulter & L Paekau |
| 2002 | S O’Dwyer & A Moskal |
| 2003 | A Coulter & A Holmes |
| 2004 | A Fergus & E Gilmore |
| 2005 | A Te Wake & T Brian |
| 2006 | H Dove & J Martyn |
| 2007 | A Harison & A Ryan |
| 2008 | K McInnes & Z Te Wake |
| 2009 | A Murray & J Bray |
| 2010 | S Rohloff-Namana & M Thomas |
| 2011 | A Oudes & J Kingsford |
| 2012 | N Staheli-Lowe & I Roche |
| 2013 | C Bird & R Keenan |
| 2014 | L Goodhue & J Scott |
| 2015 | K Dunstall & C Murray-Faulkner |
| 2016 | Y Kingsford & L Fraser |
| 2017 | S Richards & B Colman |
| 2018 | M Wells & A Thompson |
| 2019 | A Magyar & A Roycroft |
| 2020 | H Rogers & K Koopu |
| 2021 | K Walker & J Lee |
| 2022 | R Kopu Ngarimu, N Laslett, S Delamere, D Swamy, L North, J Waite, N Bellamy, L Chambers, E Serenado, T Millar |
| 2023 | D Swamy, L Walton, J Dinnage, J Frew, M Laman-Trip, N Donaldson, M Thomas, F O’Flaherty, M Dodd |
| 2024 | H Mudford, H McKinnon, S Rush, M Dodd, M L Magee, H Dass, B Kelly, Z Davies-Young, A Whatarau |
| 2025 | R Wilhelmi, B Goddard, Z-B Naisby, M Oliver, M G Magee, M North, R Morgan, B Jarvis, B Peka, M L Magee |
| 2026 | M Hutchins, C Tucker, S Shave, R Neame, J Peka, Z Clare, M Morley, A Hughes, R Morgan, S Hartley |
Our Trophies & Senior Award Recipients
This information is currently being collated as part of our archiving project.
Our aim is to have all our awards photographed and catalogued into the Library Archives. Once completed, our archives will show images of the cups, trophies and shields and list the recipients of each one.
Many of our cups and trophies have been part of our school story for generations. It is a genuine privilege to hold and present awards that have been generously gifted by members of our community — often past students or families connected to those in whose memory the awards were established.
DUX
| Year | DUX |
| 1954 | Eric Jackson |
| 1955 | Eric Jackson |
| 1956 | Barry Faville |
| 1957 | Diana Kinns |
| 1958 | Euan Pluck |
| 1959 | Gillian Bowden |
| 1960 | Jack Silcock & Nelson Young |
| 1961 | Catherine Walker & Rodney Steel |
| 1962 | John Coombes |
| 1963 | Mary Baxer & Jean Gunn |
| 1964 | Michael Spencer |
| 1965 | Christine Lee-Johnson |
| 1966 | David Scothern |
| 1967 | Dene Taylor |
| 1968 | Malcolm Smeaton |
| 1969 | Neil Cullen |
| 1970 | Neil Cullen |
| 1971 | Hilda Purvis |
| 1972 | Karen Parker |
| 1973 | Ian Cullen |
| 1974 | Judith Wert & Mark Vickers |
| 1975 | Jacqueline Mellor & Peter Graham |
| 1976 | Janet Brownlie |
| 1977 | Tony Grant |
| 1978 | Anne Pattillo |
| 1979 | Andrew Braddick |
| 1980 | Mark Smith |
| 1981 | Deryl Hansen |
| 1982 | Deryl Hansen |
| 1983 | Lynnette Rhind |
| 1984 | Anthony Bing |
| 1985 | Robert Griffin |
| 1986 | Sharon McHardy & David Parker |
| 1987 | Dean Bradley & Frances Stevens |
| 1988 | Jennifer Bing |
| 1989 | Marcel Kung |
| 1990 | Alison Orchard |
| 1991 | Mark Sollner |
| 1992 | Lara Wilcocks |
| 1993 | Toni Ireland |
| 1994 | Jonathan Purvis |
| 1995 | Helen Hale |
| 1996 | Jay McKechnie |
| 1997 | Rory Davis |
| 1998 | Shannon Smith |
| 1999 | Casey Davies |
| 2000 | Tim Van Woerden |
| 2001 | Vera Wennekers |
| 2002 | Matthew Mascelle |
| 2003 | John O’Hagan |
| 2004 | Emma Parangi |
| 2005 | Clare Morrison |
| 2006 | Charlotte Greer |
| 2007 | Anna Greig |
| 2008 | Lucy Bullock |
| 2009 | Ayla Murray |
| 2010 | Cappi Tuffery |
| 2011 | Jean Balchin |
| 2012 | Jean Balchin |
| 2013 | Yuhsein Wu |
| 2014 | Josephine Mueggenburg |
| 2015 | Nicole Taylor |
| 2016 | Claudia Garcia |
| 2017 | Millie Dunstall |
| 2018 | Aiofe Hennessy |
| 2019 | Constantin Sieve |
| 2020 | Tasmin Skinner |
| 2021 | Kyla Walker |
| 2022 | Erika Serenado |
| 2023 | Tyla Millar |
| 2024 | Hyaat Dass |
| 2025 | Evah Carey |
High Achievers
On display in our foyer are our High Achievers from 2019 onwards. These students have gained excellence in subject or level endorsements in NCEA Levels 1, 2, or 3 or in vocational pathways, demonstrating outstanding commitment to their learning.
We are proud to celebrate their dedication and the high standards they set within our community. As with our senior award recipient records, this display represents the information we currently have available. We are committed to continuing this work so we can recognise and honour earlier recipients as well.
As we research and gather further details, we look forward to strengthening this record and celebrating the long-standing tradition of academic excellence within our school.
Below are images from our foyer display, to give you a look inside our kura and the pride we have in our students.
We have records here of our High Achievers as far back as 2019. We are working towards finding older records and updating as we go.
2019
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Daniel Su, Rian Butler & Kyla Walker
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Rian Butler & Kyla Walker
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Thomas Spicer, Kaurerewa Koopu, Sharyah Krempaszky, Catlin Cumming, Kaia Waite & Winnie Choi
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Winnie Choi, Kaurerewa Koopua, Tasmin Skinner, Thomas Spicer, Catlin Cumming, Grace Coombe & Madeline MIdwinter
Level 3 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Holly Elson-Fisher
Level 3 Excellence Endorsement: Aidan Roycroft & Holly Elson-Fisher
2020
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Izzy Faber, Marissa Dodd, Jason Yeh, Manaia Nathan, Zeta Schuler, Erika Serenado, Lily Pilkington-Brodie, Honza Andres & Deva Courtney
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Izzy Faber & Erika Serenado
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Brooke McAndie, Zeke O’Dey, Nikita Adams, Kyla Walker, Joel Martin, Sarah Newton-Gardner & Rian Butler
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Kyla Walker & Daniel Su
Level 3 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Kaia Waite, Thomas Spicer, Tasmin Skinner, Winnie Choi, Kaurerewa Koopu, Benjamin Petherik & Grace Coombe
Level 3 Excellence Endorsement: Hannah Rogers, Grace Coombe, Thomas Spicer, Tasmin Skinner, Kaurerewa Koopu & Winnie Choi
2021
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: James Rutherford & Tyla Millar
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Zenaya Herbert & Tyla Millar
Level 2 Vocational Pathways Awards: Lilly Rickard, Lily North, Manaia Nathan, Brooke Moore, Jason Yeh, Lily Chambers, Honza Andrews, Matt Barakat, Aria Waite, Sheliah Manawat & Erika Serenado
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Kiana Akuhata
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Erika Serenado
Level 3 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Sarah Newton-Gardner & Rian Butler
2022
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Maggie Gerbich Burroughs
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Hamish McKinnon, Hamish Mudford & Hayaat Dass
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Hayaat Dass, Tyla Millar & Meg Thomas
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Tyla Millar
2023
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Evah Carey, Bella Paulsen & Charlie Joyce
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Evah Carey, Māhe North, Charlie Joyce
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Maggie Gerbich Burroughs, Hamish McKinnon & Hamish Mudford
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Hamish McKinnon, Hayaat Dass & Maggie Gerbich Burroughs
Level 3 Excellence Endorsement: Meg Thomas & Tyla Millar
2024
Level 1 Excellence Endorsement: Zara Clare, Zoe-Beth Naisby, Lucy Beach & Ruby Wilhelmi
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Charlie Joyce, Bella Paulsen, Māhe North, Zara Davies-Young & Evah Carey
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Charlie Joyce, Zara Davies-Young, Bella Paulsen & Evah Carey
Level 3 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Maya Dodd, Hamish McKinnon & Hamish Mudford
Level 3 Excellence Endorsement: Hayaat Dass, Maya Dodd, Maggie Gerbich Burroughs & Hamish McKinnon
2025
Level 1 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Clarisse Mercander & Jessica Yeh
Level 2 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Malea Hutchins, Tiana Reynolds, Stella Shave, Zoe-Beth Naisby, Ruby Wilhelmi & Stuart Hartley
Level 2 Excellence Endorsement: Zoe-Beth Naisby, Isla Menary, Ruby Wilhelmi, Stuart Hartley & Asha Davies-Young
Level 3 Excellence Subject Endorsement: Brooke Kelly & Evah Carey
Level 3 Excellence Endorsement: Charlie Joyce, Bella Paulsen & Evah Carey
Sports Records
For Sports Records, please head to the Sports section of our website – these are updated by our Sports and Activities Coordinator.