Burnside High School

Burnside High School (Waimairi-iri)
Aerial view of Burnside High Latin: Recte Sic Dirige Cursum Thus direct thy path aright (In this way direct your course correctly)
Address
Greers Road Burnside Christchurch 8053 New Zealand
Coordinates	43°30′27″S 172°34′34″E / 43.5075°S 172.5762°E / -43.5075; 172.5762Coordinates: 43°30′27″S 172°34′34″E / 43.5075°S 172.5762°E / -43.5075; 172.5762
Information
Funding type	State, non-integrated
Established	1960
Ministry of Education Institution no.	319
Principal	Phil Holstein
Years offered	9–13
Gender	Coeducational
School roll	2521(July 2016)
Socio-economic decile	8P
Website	burnside.school.nz

Burnside High School (Māori: Waimairi-iri) is a state co-educational secondary school located in the suburb of Burnside in Christchurch, New Zealand. With a roll of 2521 students, it is the largest school in New Zealand outside Auckland, and is among the country's six largest schools.

The Burnside property, an area of 59 hectares (150 acres), belonged to Canterbury University College (later the University of Canterbury) as an endowment. When the college considered moving away from its central city site, the Burnside property was considered, but the college purchased what is now known as the Ilam campus from the late 1940s instead. A reduced land area was used by the Ministry of Education for Burnside High School.

The school's construction started in 1959. Like most New Zealand state secondary schools built in the 1960s, the school is structurally a "Nelson 2H" school. 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. Burnside has five of these blocks: A, B, D, E and F blocks.

A swimming pool was added in 1961, which became fully functional in 1964 after the addition of filtration equipment. The gymnasium was soon constructed afterwards. In 2004 and 2005 construction of a new block, library and administration area began. These were opened in 2006 by Helen Clark, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. The school's fiftieth jubilee was held in 2010, attended by John Key, an ex-pupil and Prime Minister of New Zealand. Following damage caused by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Avonside Girls' High School shared the facilities of Burnside High School. Avonside Girls' High School relocated back to their home site in 2012. Burnside High School, due to being relatively undamaged and with power and water restored shortly after the quake, was used as a welfare centre by Civil Defence.

On 28 March 2012 the school was put into lockdown after students reported seeing a man walking the grounds carrying a silver pistol, which was later found by police to be plastic.