The Auckland Education Board had this school built during 1952. Its planning name was Middlemore Intermediate but when it opened in 1953 it was called Otara Intermediate. Five years later Papatoetoe Intermediate opened using rooms at Papatoetoe high School until their own school was completed. The foundation principal of this 1958 Papatoetoe Intermediate was a man called Mr Kedgley. Returning to school after a school sports match he was killed in an accident in 1967. In honour of his service to education the Auckland Education Board re-named Papatoetoe Intermediate “Kedgley Intermediate” and then re-named Otara Intermediate – our school – “Papatoetoe Intermediate”. This makes it confusing for school reunions!
One of our most famous former students was the Honourable Mark Gosche who spent Form 1 in 1967 at Otara Intermediate and Form 2 in 1968 at Papatoetoe Intermediate – all without changing his school. Mark entered Parliament in 1977 and became the first MP of Pacific Island origins to become a Minister.
The Right Honourable David Lange ONZ was a foundation pupil and in 1954 was Head Boy. The school has had many well known New Zealanders through its gates as students.
The school has celebrated three anniversaries to date – the 25th in 1978, the 40th in 1993 and the 50th in 2003.
New or re-developed buildings have been opened by prominent Members of Parliament. The new library was opened in 1999 by Ross Robertson, the Music Suite by the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Helen Clark, in 2001; the new administration block and re-development technology block by the Minister of Education, the Hon. Trevor Mallard, in 2003.