Kuranui College

Kuranui College is a state co-educational secondary day school for the South Wairarapa located in Greytown, New Zealand. The college opened in February 1960 to replace the four district high schools in Greytown, Featherston, Martinborough, and Carterton. The college was built in Greytown, for it was the midpoint of the towns. In the midst of the post-World War II baby boom. It has been said to have as many as 900 students in the mid-1970s, but since the end of the baby boom, that number has dropped.

Then Education Minister Lockwood Smith disbanded the college's Board of Trustees due to it being dysfunctional. Brian Lochore was appointed commissioner after sacking of the board of trustees in 1994. Board in-fighting had reached the stage where the students rebelled, staging a lunchtime student strike. In 2005, Trevor Mallard visited Kuranui College due to the Wairarapa schools project, WELCom. He first announced the project at Kuranui College. The project aims to establish a 'virtual' secondary school community for the Tararua and Wairarapa region using broadband. Kuranui is one of 15 rural secondary schools in New Zealand with agricultural subjects in their curriculum. Kuranui is a busload college with over eighty per cent of the students who go to college travel to and from school daily by bus.

The college serves Years 9 to 13; the college has a roll of 791 students as of July 2025.

Prior to the establishment of Kuranui, secondary education in the South Wairarapa was catered for by the local district high schools in the four towns. As early as 1950, the Greytown School Committee and Wellington Education Board members were discussing methods of fulfilling this need. In July 1952, a meeting of school committees and parent-teacher associations asked the Wellington Education Board to establish a post-primary school in South Wairarapa. The department proceeded with the request to establish a post-primary school. During the succeeding months, the location of the new college was the subject of much discussion, and though Greytown and Featherston agreed to the disestablishment of the local high schools, In July 1958, the Cabinet Works Committee approved the preparation of plans. By September 1959, Sam Meads had been appointed principal. The name "Kuranui" was selected by the Committee of Management at its inaugural meeting in Greytown District High School on September 19, 1959. Kuranui in the Māori language means "large school" (kura = school, education, learning gathering + nui = to be large, big), describing the aspect it was formed from three former high schools, and also being a secondary school ("bigger" than a primary school.)

On the 1st of February 1960, twenty-two staff met together for the first time. The next day, the whole school assembled in the hospital paddock. When the college was first opened in 1960, it taught children at the primary school level as well as children at the secondary level. The official opening of the college wasn't done until a year later, in 1961, by Lord Cobham, who was Governor-General at the time. In 1962 the drama class did Trial by Jury. The college produced a recording of the play on a 10-inch LP with the label "His Master's Voice Process Recording." The drama class also did the opera Lolanthe in 1966 with the same recording company. This led to a sequence of Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the first few years such as The Gondoliers, The Mikado and The Yeomen of the Guard.

The crest represents the Wairarapa. The two white arrows represent the peaks of the mountain ranges. The blue with white zigzags represent Lake Wairarapa with the sun shining on the lake, and below the crest is the school motto, Tatau Tatau.

The first reunion was held in April 1985 for the college's Silver Jubilee. Next was Easter 2000, from April 21–23, for the 40th anniversary. In 2010, the college had its Golden Jubilee over the Easter weekend. Some of the events of the reunion included entertainment from the college's dance group and the kapa haka group. A museum was also set up in the auditorium, where old photos of the college, uniforms, and memorabilia were displayed. A 60th anniversary celebration was held at the college. 113 students out of the original 450 came to the event. At the end of the day, a cherry tree was dug up for the future students of the college to sit under.

In 2009, a year 13 student pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis. He was also giving it out to his flower students in the playground of the college. His family withdrew him from the college.