School History

The Academy is named after Rewi Alley, a New Zealander who lived and worked in China for 60 years until his death in 1987. He was renowned for the establishment of industrial co-operatives, technical training schools and for being an advocate and diplomat for China. Rewi Alley's father Frederick Alley, was the first principal of Wharenui School in Christchurch and it is fitting that Rewi Alley Academy and its sister school, Rewi Alley Chinese School, share the grounds of Wharenui School.

In the photograph, Deng Xiaoping (right) and Rewi Alley talk at Rewi's 80th birthday celebrations (December 1977)