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Arataki School celebrated its 50th jubilee in style this weekend as past and present students and staff gathered at the school grounds to mark the occasion.

The school's first principal Peter Densem, 97, was also on hand to celebrate the jubilee.

Peter was the principal of Arataki School in 1963.

Arataki School principal Dene Langley, Peter Densem, Eli Terry, 5, and foundation staff member Ebba Te Tua stand by as the time capsule is sealed.

Arataki School's first principal Peter Densem, 97, with their most recent student Eli Terry, 5, and foundation staff member Ebba Te Tua cutting the cake.

Current principal Dene Langley says today has been a really full on day.

'The parents and children all started turning up about 9.45am and probably the height of the number of people here would have been about 11am.

'I estimate we had about 300-400 people here then. I'd say over half of them would have been ex-pupils. Generally there were a lot of early ex-Arataki parents, pupils and teachers.”

He says there were lots of activities for the children and lots of stalls.

'We turned it into an old fashioned gala.

'We had stage entertainment from two Kapa Haka groups. Mount Maunganui College brought their dance and musical group down. We had the Tongan performers and raffles that were drawn by some of the teachers.”

The jubilee celebrations started with a powhiri at the school yesterday, with two of the 20 dignitaries being former principals.

'We cut the cake and had a time capsule as well. The time capsule has newspaper articles in it, children's work along with some photographs of what we have been doing, just lots of stuff to be opened in 25 years.

'The time capsule is not to be buried, it's a big tube which will be placed on a hook in the foyer. So in 10 years if someone wanted to move it they could.”