Enrolment
Why
Darfield?
Choosing the right school for your child is about more than just academics; it’s about finding a place where they’ll feel supported, inspired, and equipped to thrive.
At Darfield High School, we offer the best of both worlds: a welcoming, community-based environment and the opportunities of a larger school.
We’re proud to be small enough to know each student as an individual, yet large enough to provide a wide range of subjects, activities, and pathways. Our dedicated staff take the time to build strong relationships, ensuring students are valued, encouraged, and challenged to achieve their personal best.
Our four core values guide everything we do:
- Manaakitanga – respect and care for others
- Kotahitanga – strength through unity and diversity
- Kaitiakitanga – responsibility for our future and environment
- Rangatiratanga – empowering students to grow as leaders of their own learning
Set in a stunning rural location just 40 minutes from Christchurch, Darfield offers a safe, supportive, and enriching setting for young people to learn and grow. Beyond the classroom, students enjoy diverse sporting, cultural, outdoor, and leadership opportunities, from performing arts to skiing, debating to agriculture.
Families choose Darfield because it’s a school where students are known, opportunities are abundant, and values are lived every day.
Our Place
Te Kura Tuarua o Tawera | Darfield High School is a co-ed Year 7 to Year 13 school. The school was established as a secondary school in 1951. It is the only secondary school in the area, bounded by the Waimakariri River to the north, the Rakaia River to the south, Christchurch to the east, and the Southern Alps to the west. The school serves a rural community of small but growing towns and the neighbouring countryside. Most students from the contributing primary schools – Darfield, Glentunnel, Greendale, Hororata, Kirwee, Sheffield, Springfield and Windwhistle – enrol at Darfield High School in Year 7.
Whenua Kura | Darfield is located on the Kā Pākihi-whakatekateka | Canterbury Plains, in Te Waipounamu | the South Island of New Zealand, 40 km west of the city of Ōtautahi | Christchurch. It is a town of about 3000 residents, although this is increasing quickly, at the centre of a large agricultural district.
Māori and Mana Whenua
All of Darfield High School’s enrolment zone falls within the takiwā of Te Taumutu Rūnanga, based at Ngāti Moki Marae, Taumutu. While Te Taumutu Rūnanga and Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri (traditionally based at the Kaiapoi Pā) have shared interests in the DHS area, Te Taumutu is recognised as the kaitiaki of the educational institutions in the district.
The Malvern area is situated within a traditional network of Ngāi Tahu settlements and mahinga kai areas spread across the central part of Kā Pākihi Whakatekateka o Waitaha (the Canterbury Plains), which are of particular significance to Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki, as well as Ngāi Tūāhuriri. This network played an important role in traditional lifeways and remains significant to the heritage and ongoing identity of mana whenua. These places include numerous wāhi tapu and wāhi taonga such as pā (fortified villages), kāinga (villages), urupā (burials), ara tawhito (trails) as well as mahinga kai. Collectively, these places, along with their associated creation, migration and settlement traditions, form a cultural landscape which reflects the ongoing and enduring relationship Ngāi Tahu have with the land.
Of particular importance to this network were the travelling routes leading over Kā Tiriti o Te Moana (The Southern Alps) to Te Tai Poutini (the West Coast) which allowed the trade of valuable resources such as pounamu, which was a precious taonga to Ngāi Tahu.
The numerous mahinga sites spread along this journey were an integral part of this network in facilitating movement between the coasts while also providing important seasonal food sources.
Further information on our mana whenua, Te Taumutu Rūnanga, can be found on their website, linked here.
