Masterton's first school

Masterton Primary School is a co-educational state primary school for Year 1 to 6 students,^[8][9] with a roll of 228 as of February 2024.^[10]

The only school within the Masterton borough until 1909 when Lansdowne School opened (that school closed in 2004) it was founded in 1865 as Masterton West School. The attendance fees were a shilling a week in spite of a state subsidy. In 1866 they had 11 boys and 9 girls in one room on the Upper Plain opposite the current Fernridge School. Masterton's first State School was founded in 1877 using premises in Dixon Street near the site of the current courthouse and the close by park for playgrounds. The roll was 389 pupils in 1881. These arrangements were soon replaced by Masterton Central School in Kuripuni which opened on 6 February 1882.^[11] The site was sandwiched between Queen and Chapel Streets taking more than 5 acres, the northern half of the block bounded by Kuripuni Street and Russell Street where it met the education reserve that would also become for a while the grounds of Wairarapa College and St Joseph's, St Patrick's and the Convent.

It became Masterton District High School in 1884 after adding classes in mathematics, Latin and French but there were insufficient secondary pupils and after 15 months it reverted to being Central. The High School status returned for 21 years in March 1902. In March 1923 the new Wairarapa High School opened taking away the secondary department. The primary department resumed the name Masterton Central School until 2004 (when Harley Street School was closed and merged in) and the word Central was replaced with Primary.^[11]

In the 1960s it was recognised the buildings needed to be renewed but, positioned across the entrance to town, the school's generous site had become commercially valuable. The school's move to 53 South Road was completed at the end of 1970^[12] and Kuripuni's triangle began to take on a quite different style and appearance. Most of the school's 1960s South Road buildings were replaced in 2004.

Masterton Intermediate is a co-educational state intermediate school for Year 7 to 8 students,^[13][14] with a roll of 368.^[15] It was a greenfield development of the late 1950s.

Chanel College is a co-educational state-integrated Catholic secondary school for Year 7 to 13 students,^[16] with a roll of 304 as of February 2024.^[17] It was founded in 1978.^[18]