Now, just one - Arrowtown School - remains and at Labour Weekend it will celebrate its 150th anniversary with a reunion.
The school first opened in 1863, early in the gold mining era, in a wooden building on the former Royal Oak hotel site. The building moved three years later to a site on Angelsea St.
In 1875 a stone school building was constructed and almost 90 years later, in 1964, a new school building was built on the Caernarvon St side of that site.
It was not until October 1997 the present school, on Centennial Ave, was opened, with 187 pupils.
Fifteen years later the school's roll had increased to 457. The most recent addition was 5-year-old Annabelle Sinclair, formerly of Dipton, who had her first day at the school on April 18.
Her father, Peter, said the family - including 9-year-old Harriet - had just moved to Arrowtown, having sold a large part of their dairy farm.
After just one full day at the school, Mr Sinclair said Annabelle was ''loving it''.
''She really was hoping we were going to school today for the whole day.''
Harriet will start at the school on May 9 and for her it would be a big change, he said.
''They're coming from a school of 72 kids, to 450 - the size of Dipton School is what Arrowtown gets in new entrants.''
Mr Sinclair said he and his wife, expecting the couple's third child next month, thought about moving to Dunedin, but decided Arrowtown was better suited to the family. On Wednesday, Annabelle met former Arrowtown School pupil Jack Reid (92), who began his education in Arrowtown about 1926, initially at the Catholic School, which opened in 1873 on the present Catholic Church site, before attending Arrowtown School.
When asked what his memories were of his primary school days, Mr Reid quickly responded ''getting the strap''.
His antics - ''just the average naughty things'' - saw him frequently receive six lashes, ''three on each hand''.
''Mrs Douglas, who was the head teacher, she used to put her strap on the top of the stove.
''Boy, it stung.
''You'd go back with a smile on your face, but the tears were flowing.''
Strappable offences included pupils attempting to write with their left hand, or arriving late to class - something for which Mr Reid was punished almost daily.
After deciding to take morning piano lessons at the Catholic School, Mr Reid said he had to ''run like mad along the road ... [but] no matter how fast I ran, I'd be there about five minutes late''.
His morning greeting from the teacher was ''hold out your hand'', he said.
''I complained about that and my piano lessons were suspended.''
He also recalled having to pay nuns sixpence a week to cover his education.
Ordinarily his sister, five years his senior, would be given the money to take to school.
However, on one occasion he was given the responsibility of taking the money for the nuns.
''I was walking past ... Henderson's shop ... in the window there was a wooden horse. Price: sixpence.
''So I spent the sixpence.
''I arrived home eventually with the wooden horse and was quizzed about that.
''The horse was seized and taken back and I never was trusted with the money again.''
After leaving Arrowtown School at the age of ''13 and eight months'', Mr Reid attended high school by correspondence, as the District High School, which was established in the former Wesleyan Church, closed in 1913 due to a lack of numbers.
Mr Reid said his secondary education was gained from a tent, ''five miles up the river'', where he stayed with a mining family who had two children being educated by correspondence.
''The sun would only come in for half-an-hour a day in the winter. It was pretty cold.''
His high school education was limited and Mr Reid moved to Dunedin as a teenager to begin an engineering apprenticeship. However, half-way through that, ''war time came''.
Following the war he took a ''temporary job at the post office, which lasted for 18 and a-half years'', he said.
At the school on Wednesday, Mr Reid was overwhelmed by the facilities enjoyed by pupils like Annabelle - who said her favourite thing about school so far was ''playing in the playground''.
''I never thought Arrowtown would support a school of this size.''
Over Labour Weekend the school will hold a reunion, and organiser Julie Hughes, of Arrowtown, was hoping to attract as many former pupils as possible to share their memories.
An official launch will be held on October 25, a community gala day and a dinner and dance on October 26 and a school open day on October 27.
Anyone wanting to register for the reunion can email julie@arrowevents.co.nz.
