Clover Park Middle School opened as an Intermediate School on 29 January 1980. It was originally named Otara East Intermediate, but the name was changed prior to the school’s opening.

Te Whanau o Tupuranga was established, firstly as a “Taha Maori’ unit in 1986, and then as the Maori bilingual unit of Clover Park Middle School in 1988, at that time, the first Maori bilingual unit at intermediate level in the country. From 1990 parents of students in Te Whanau o Tupuranga began to agitate with government for the right to retain their children in the whanau for Forms 3 and 4. After many different arrangements, most unfunded and unresourced, during which period older students did remain in Tupuranga, Clover Park gained approval in 1995 to open as a Form 1 to 4 (Years 7-10) Middle School. Although 2 other schools also gained this status in 1995, Clover Park had already had older students in Te Whanau o Tupuranga for 5 years and was seen as the leader in this field. The change of status gave all students at Clover Park the right to remain at the school for their Year 7 to 10 years if they chose to do so.

Originally the open plan teaching spaces had been called Areas and simply numbered 1-4. In 1986 other Areas in the school followed Tupuranga’s lead and took on a name for the first time. Each reflected an ethnic group within the school. Area 1 became Fonuamalu (Tongan – a safe shelter), Area 2 became Kimiora (Maori – seeking life or well-being) and Area 3 was named Lumanai (Samoan – future). Lumana’i opened as a Samoan bilingual unit in 1992. Fonuamalu developed its Tongan bilingual programme in 2005 and Kimiora has been seen as the centre for Cook Islands Maori culture since 1994/5. Kimiora also hosts Clover Park’s mainstream general programmes (i.e. not bilingual and for students from all other ethnic backgrounds).

In 1986 buildings had been transported into the school and developed into a fifth teaching block (Area 5) and named Amataga (Samoan – beginning ). In 1998 this block of buildings was re-opened as the school’s Kia Aroha Marae.

At the end of 2001 the board of trustees was approached again by Maori parents and a group of former students from Te Whanau o Tupuranga who wanted to return to the whanau. They sought continuity of the Maori learning environment they had not been able to find in their different and varied senior secondary schools. Again the parent whanau fought against bureacracy and significant opposition for the right to develop a senior programme in Tupuranga that would cater for this need. Again during the next 3 years a group of older students did return and were educated through the goodwill of Tupuranga staff and the school with the only resourcing being some limited courses through the Correspondence School.

In 2004, after lengthy consultation with all of the school’s ethnic communities, the whanau applied for approval to establish Tupuranga as a “designated character” Year 7 to 13 school and after four years of struggle this was approved on 25 May 2005. Te Whanau o Tupuranga opened as the first Maori bilingual secondary school in the country on 7 February 2006.

From September 2005, through the establishment process, the schools were legally required to have 2 separate boards of trustees and an acting principal each. Following a further required period of consultation throughout 2006, the 2 boards won approval from the Minister of Education to combine. A combined board was duly elected and the first combined board meeting took place on 28 November 2006. At this meeting the board resolved to appoint one principal for both schools in keeping with the community’s preference and to ensure the 2 schools continued to work closely together as a whanau. The principal’s appointment was finalised in December 2006.

In 2007 work will begin on a complete restructuring of the schools’ campus with new buildings designed for Te Whanau o Tupuranga, refurbishment of the school marae and new administration buildings, libary/information centre, technology rooms, auditorium, staff room, gymnasium, a Whanau Centre and a Pasifika Centre – all of which will be shared facilities with Clover Park. Refurbishment is also planned for the Clover Park teaching blocks.

The achievement of this dream and the development of a new, state of the art campus is a significant achievement for the schools’ shared community and both schools are committed to working together, in continued partnership with families to provide innovation and excellence for our young people.