At the beginning of the year, Te Awamutu College embarked on a process to rename the four school houses to better reflect the school and community.
Principal Tony Membery says new names have been selected after a thoughtful and thorough process.
This involved the gathering of 36 submissions by various means, a working-party recommendation of six options, voting by students, staff and parents/caregivers, and analysis and discussion of the result by the board and the school's senior leadership team.
The new names, which will be adopted from next year, are Kōwhai, Pounamu, Pōhutakawa and Kikorangi - replacing Selwyn, Melrose, Cameron and Gorst.
The new names reflect the natural environment and the house colours.