people. It was opened by the Governor General, Lord Bledisloe. In 1981 a mezzanine floor was added to the church. At the same time, the choir stalls and the pipe organ were removed. Damaged in the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes, it was demolished soon after. Beckenham Methodist Church Beckenham Methodist Church is located at 83 Malcolm Ave, Christchurch. St Peter's Catholic Church St Peter's Catholic Church and St Peters school are located on Fisher Avenue. St Peter's school was opened in 1927 with the land for the school donated by the Fisher family. It was proposed in 2019, that St Peter's Catholic Church could be closed in a reshuffle and amalgamation of parishes in Christchurch. Primary school Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto is a state, co-educational, primary school catering for school Years 1 to 8. The school opened as Beckenham School on Monday 8 February 1915 with 149 pupils and a staff of four, following lobbying to the Canterbury Education Board by the Beckenham Burgesses’ Association, who argued that it was too dangerous for Beckenham children to cross Colombo St tramlines to attend Somerfield School. The school roll and its buildings grew rapidly so that by 1928 the school roll reached 562. The roll in recent years (2020) has ranged from around 430 at the beginning of the school year and rising to around 510 by the end of the year. The Canterbury Earthquake of 22 Feb 2011 destroyed the school pool. A fire in January 2013 destroyed the library and multipurpose rooms. Approximately 13% of the school's population is Māori and there is a strong support for school te reo Māori and Tikanga Māori programmes within the community. Children of other ethnic backgrounds include Cook Island Māori, Samoan, Tongan, Indian, Russian, Hungarian, Dutch, German, African, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. The school has an attached satellite class from Ferndale School for moderately intellectually disabled children. The first school committee adopted the red, yellow and black colours of the Belgian flag as the school colours as a tribute to the bravery shown by that country in the 1914-1918 World War. Beckenham is currently a decile 8 school. Beckenham School changed its name to Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto on 1st January 2018 after the Ministry of Education approved the new name that was gifted by Ngāi Tūāhuriri rūnanga. Literally translated as "The School of the Ponds", the name reflects the school's location