History: 1970 to present.

1970
About 1000 former pupils attended the school's centennial. Activities included a children's concert, a parade, a ball, and a church service.
(The school has a copy of the centennial booklet and the commemorative metal badge. We have also given a copy to the Avondale-Waterview Historical Society which in turn has loaned us some artefacts for our archive display.)
The Reunion Committee asked the Education Board to allow the school to retain the old school bell when the old buildings were replaced.
A committee member, Mrs Watson, was once told that her children would be the lucky ones to go to a new school. In point of fact, her grandchildren attended the old one.
The local M. P. asked in Parliament what action was being taken to replace the very old buildings at the Avondale School.

1971
Headline in "Truth": 'This school is a dirty disgrace.'
The Headmaster reported that a new school would be built on the site during 1972. He stated that the plan envisaged would offer a most exciting and different type of school building, one that would be the envy of most other schools.

1973
The School Committee stated that it had in mind to put in a place of prominence the old school bell, possibly with the original plinth or bell tower which had been salvaged during demolition.
The children moved into their new classrooms. The grounds, however, were in a mess.

1974
The Headmaster reported that progress on grounds restoration was slow. Children had been without adequate playing space for 7 terms.

1977
The Auckland City Council wrote to the school stating that skateboarders were having trouble finding facilities, and suggested that the Avondale School grounds provided a suitable site.

1979
The School Committee asked for Education Board help to counter vandalism and other undesirable activities at night in dark areas of the school.
The school hall was declared an earthquake risk and must be demolished by the end of 1981.

1985
The school grounds were used for the official opening of the new Post Office, with 200 official guests attending. They were entertained by children of the school.

1987
The Junior toilet block, resource room, two classrooms and a great deal of school and personal property, were destroyed in a fire.

1989
After 119 years and about 1200 meetings the Avondale Primary School Committee met for the last time.
All Education Boards were abolished and replaced by local Boards of Trustees.
The school roll was 196 and the Board of Trustees felt that this was close to an ideal size.

1990
The swimming pool and filtration plant were given a major upgrade thanks to a $42,000 grant from Government. The possibility of moving the old Whau Hall (where the school began) onto the present site was investigated but the cost was considered prohibitive.

1991
The Board of Trustees was concerned about the cost of providing tea, coffee, milk and sugar for staff and asked that a record of daiiy consumption be kept.

1992
The Board of Trustees joined others in protesting about the likely closure of Special Classes. The Government abandoned its plans.
The Board of Trustees accepted an offer from staff to pay for the re-covering of staffroom chairs.

1993
A computer room was opened.

1994
A pupil wrote to the Board of Trustees suggesting that the school use unbleached paper as she claimed that toxins in bleached paper caused breast cancer. The Board replied that it would do what it could.

1995
The last of the unsatisfactory 'open plan' spaces created when the school was rebuilt in 1972 was subdivided into single classrooms. (See 1971 note above)
A policy that all children should wear uniform red hats when outdoors in summer was introduced.
The Board of Trustees decided that the school site could accommodate a maximum of 380 pupils and to introduce an enrolment scheme.
Three more classrooms were built on the site.

1996
The four term school year was introduced.

1997
The sixty year old wooden block near the Layard Street boundary was demolished and a new Clinic Block to house a speech language therapist, a dental therapist and a resource teacher of reading was built close to Great North Road.

1998
A large school hall was built on the corner of Layard and Crayford Streets. The building included a belfry in which was hung the old school bell. The Portage Licensing Trust provided a grant to buy the whiteware for the Hall kitchen.
Two more classrooms were built on the site.
One of the very large oak trees on the Great North Road boundary blew over in a storm. A grandparent turned some of the wood into small objects which are now in the school's archives display.

1999
The school became totally smokefree.
Three new adventure playground areas were funded by the Board of Trustees.

2000
The computer room was re-sited, fully re-equipped with computers, laser and colour printers and a scanner. An air conditioning unit was funded for the computer room by the Portage Licensing Trust.

2002
Plans were drawn up for an upgraded administration block and a refurbished library/ICT centre, and work began in October.
A grant from Portage Licensing Trust provided sound field systems for eight junior classes.

2003
In March the administration building was fully operational and work was almost complete on the library/ICT centre.
The Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Prime Minister, and local M. P. officially opened the new administraion building on 6 June.
Grants from Portage Licensing Trust provided wireless networking for a classroom block and five new computers. Each classroom now has a networked computer.

(Scroll down to see 1954 aerial photo)

2004
Each classroom has a sound field system installed courtesy of a grant from Portage Trust. This means all students can clearly hear the sounds of language at all times. The classroom acoustics are very poor, but the sound field system means that the noise level is much lower and teachers and students need only speak at a slightly higher volume than a whisper. The PTA funded new blackout curtains for the Hall and a data projector.

2005
The computer suite now has new computers using the Microsoft XP platform. The older models of computers have gone into classrooms as a second computer. The library has a pod of computers for student use, as well as the library catalogue computer. A sound field system has been installed in the computer suite, along with a data projector, the wireless network has been upgraded to cope with more extensive use of ICT in the school and a bigger server has been installed for the school network. Portage Trust funded much of our ICT hardware.
A Fun Run run by students mid-year raised enough money to buy a data projector and a mimio for classroom use.

All teachers completed the Numeracy Development Project.

2006

All teachers completed the  3 year ICT Professional Development contract, upskilling teachers to integrate ICT into classroom programmes.

2007

 The school became a Health Promoting School supported by the Auckland District Health Board personnel. Our school focus is on nutrition. We have also committed our school to the MoE initiative for Student Health and Wellbeing. Our Principal of 8 years Mrs Macleod resigned.