What's in a School Name?

Ron Giles was a founder pupil at Torbay Primary School and Head Prefect of Rangitoto College. The following is an article he wrote for the Torbay Primary School Reunion in 2006.

One of the more interesting stories that came out of the recent Jubilee celebrations at Rangitoto College was that the original name proposed for the school was Murrays Bay High School. It was revealed that it was the original Principal, Mr Frank Tucker, who insisted that the school be named Rangitoto College.
Of interest to many Rangitoto ex-pupils will be news of another North Shore school’s Jubilee. This time it is the Torbay Primary School that is gearing up to celebrate 50 years. What many of those ex-pupils may not know is that Torbay School actually started 118 years ago. The school had its beginnings in the informal classes conducted by Capt. Cholmondeley-Smith in the early 1880’s in the old church, St Mary’s-by-the-sea, at the top of what is now Deep Creek Road. After a few years, it was decided a dedicated school was essential. Timber was hauled by scow from Auckland up Deep Creek and a school building commissioned in 1888. But despite the original school being located just up the road from the existing school, it was called Long Bay School. Why, when the school is probably closer to Browns Bay than to Long Bay, seems a question the answer to which has been lost in history.
The original Long Bay School closed down in 1940 when the new Browns Bay School opened and all the pupils were transferred. The old school building was moved to Campbells Bay School and later to Paremoremo where it was used as a Scout Hall.
In the early fifties, the population growth in the Torbay and Long Bay region saw the Education Board decide that a new school was needed in the area. Construction started in 1954 and the school opened in 1956. There was also some drama with the naming of the new school. Mrs Mary Giles, a long term resident of Torbay, recalls the saga.
“My husband, Ces, was on the original School Committee and he told me that the majority of the committee members wanted the school to be called Deep Creek School”. But they had been outflanked.
“Before the school was even built, my husband and his good friend, Arthur Boswell, made sure that all the correspondence with the Education Board in the formative days was written on letterheads bearing the title ‘Torbay School’. Despite there being a majority of members of the original committee in favour of the new school being called Deep Creek School, it was too late – the Board had already entered the name Torbay School in its records”, said Mrs Giles.
Arthur Boswell became Secretary of the original School Committee with Ces Giles on the committee and later becoming Chairman. The school has grown substantially from the original four classrooms and ex-pupils will be impressed by the facilities now present.