Richmond School was one of the first public schools in the country at a time when most were privately run. Its genesis was a school opened by the Nelson School Society in Richmond in 1846, just four years after the first immigrant ships arrived in Nelson Haven. In 1856 a Central Board of Education took over the administration of schools already run by the society, resulting in the Nelson Education Act of 1856 and making the Nelson Province the first in the New Zealand to organise and maintain a system of public schools where no fees were charged. In October that year the purpose-built Richmond Public School opened and thus the history of the school is deemed to have officially begun. Richmond School is no longer a far flung suburban school but rather a busy city school with all the urban pressures of population growth, increased traffic and demands on space. Yet through all this, it retains a sense of community, providing a school environment where children want to be at school for what principal Tim Brenton described at the time of the 150th celebration as “the best party in town”.