A view of the history of Onslow College

Onslow opened on a bare windswept hill in the suburbs as a new co-ed secondary school in 1956 in response to the population pressures of the baby boom which was then at its height. (The future Newlands College was then a gorse covered hillside and the Raroa Intermediate site was the local tip). It was poorly served by public transport and the few people who lived nearby mainly lived in railway or state houses. But the northern suburbs were rapidly expanding and the intention was that this school would take some of the pressure off before further secondary schools would be built in Karori and possibly eventually in the brand new suburb of Newlands.

However, right from the beginning there was some sense of an ‘Onslow Way’ and students chose to attend the school from further away than the immediate suburbs even though the trip could be quite lengthy. The attractions were co-ed, fresh attitudes, lots of space and a broad curriculum (at that time Wellington High, the other Wellington co-ed was still a technical school and Wellington Girls’ and Wellington College were very traditional). It seems that many staff also reflected this fresh approach. The muddy windswept hillside and school motto helped develop sense of difference (Levavi oculos meos in montes – I lift my eyes to the hills or ‘high expectations’). There was soon a tramping club, sports and cultural teams and school leavers making their mark in the world.

In the 60s the school grew to 1100 and many students participated in the world-wide ferment of change. The Secondary School Students Association was started mainly by Onslow students in the late 1960s (for student educational rights and eventuated in the student-centred philosophy the school has now). They marched on parliament, met the Minister of Education and featured on television and other media. Opposition to corporal punishment and the Vietnam War were also hot topics at Onslow. About this time prize giving and prefects were abolished due to student pressure. Direct action for change (such as sit-ins) was a feature of the school. Prize giving was seen as elitist with the money better spent on library books, and the prefect system anti-democratic and unegalitarian. Onslow became one of first to have a student council (also a woman as chair of the Board of Trustees). A battle to get rid of uniforms took several years from the late 60s to early 70s and was successful in stages with hats and gloves the first to go. Reasons included the demeaning hair and hem length checks, waste of staff time and underlying conformity of uniforms.

Onslow has continued to foster responsible, independent learners and this is reflected in the current school vision: ‘We will be satisfied when all students are challenged to achieve personal standards of excellence in an environment that encourages individual responsibility, freedom of expression and respect for the rights of others’.

Onslow College is named for Lord William Hillier Onslow (1853-1911) Governor of New Zealand from 1889-1892. A few months after the family settled in Government House their small son Cranley caught typhoid and although he survived, the Onslows view of Wellington was blighted and they left their post early due to distrust of the city's poor sanitation. However, to placate them, their family name was given to a new borough formed in the northern suburbs in 1890.

Red and green were apparently the official colours of the Onslow family and official permission was required for the development of the Onslow College coat of arms.

Incidentally, the longest serving Mayor of Onslow borough, before its amalgamation with Wellington City in 1919, was a black American singer Robert Bradford Williams who first visited New Zealand in the 1880s with a singing troup and later set up as a barrister on Lambton Quay before serving 5 terms as Onslow borough mayor.

See also:  www.dnzb.govt.nz

Contributions to this history site are welcomed. Please send stories, memories, anecdotes, reminiscences and news of former students and staff of Onslow College to Hilary Stace at stacefamily@actrix.co.nz or c/ Onslow College, Private Bag 13-906, Johnsonville, Wellington