Otumoetai College

Otumoetai College is a state coeducational secondary school located in Tauranga, New Zealand. The school opened in February 1965 with 206 students from years 9 to 13 (ages 12 to 18) to serve the western suburbs of Tauranga. Otumoetai is claimed to stand for “peaceful waters” implied by the peaceful surroundings and estuary within the Otumoetai area.

As of November 2015, Otumoetai College has a roll of 1946 students, making it the largest school in the Bay of Plenty Region.

History

The history of the land that Otumoetai College resides on goes back many years to the turn of the 20th century, where the land was farmed by a young Englishman named Mr Tollemache.

Otumoetai College opened in February 1965. Like many New Zealand secondary schools of the era, the school was designed and constructed to the Nelson 2H standard plan. The Nelson 2H is distinguished by its two-storey H-shaped classroom blocks, with stairwells at each end of the block and a large ground floor toilet and cloak area on one side. The school has three of these blocks – D, F and G blocks. G block (originally D block), was completed ready for the school opening in 1965; F block was completed in two stages in 1967 and 1968; and D block (originally G block) was completed in two stages in 1969 and 1973. In the early 2000s, the school modified the blocks from their original design by converting the toilet and cloak areas into additional classrooms, and moving the stairs outside the buildings and converting the original stairwells into storage.

Otumoetai

Otumoetai is a major suburb of the city of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. Otumoetai is a name used to describe the central area of the peninsula and also the suburbs of Central Otumoetai, Brookfield, Bellevue, Pillans Point, Bureta, Cherrywood and Matua as a whole.

History

Before the 1950s Otumoetai was largely orchards and farms but then houses started to be built in Brookfield, Otumoetai Central and Pillans Point. Following this the suburb started to take shape and in the 1990s the last pieces of land left in the suburb were developed into housing. Today expansion is little because practically no land is left to be built on but apartments are being developed in some areas and expansion is continuing south of the suburb in Bethlehem.

Education

Otumoetai is one of the most significant Primary, Intermediate and Secondary school suburbs in the Bay of Plenty Region, including the institutions of: