In England during the 1840s the Canterbury Association was formed. Christchurch was to be the utopia of Anglicanism. Land was only to be sold to Anglicans creating a near perfect society. This soon changed because land wasn’t selling fast enough in the 1850s. Land was first sold at 3 pounds per acre. 1 pound for development and structure such as roads government etc, 1 pound for the cost of purchase and surveying etc and the other 1 pound for the church to build churches and schools. For a long time only churches operated schools. During the 1860s and 70s there were dozens of churches built in Canterbury.
In 1908 St Faiths Anglican Church in New Brighton built a ‘Mission Church’ in Breezes Road just south of Carters Road. In 1911 the “Breezes Road School,’ also known as the Aranui School, begun in this building. The church at this time didn’t have involvement in the running of the school as the government by this time had control of most school education in New Zealand.
1n 1913 the church building was relocated nearer to Pages Road behind the present ‘St Ambrose’ Church at 309 Breezes Road. It burnt down in the 1970s.
1n 1915 the Education Board had purchased land and built Aranui School’s first classroom on this permanent site. At different times when the districts population grew rapidly, the church was again used as a temporary classroom. At the school’s peak in 1960 not only was St Ambrose Church used for schooling, but so were Iona Presbyterian Church and the Aranui Hall.
It is fitting that the Sunday morning Church Service be held here at the church where our school began.