The Canterbury Provincial Council passed The Education Ordinance 1873 in June of that year to consolidate law relating to public education.

[2] As a consequence, the Christchurch East School district was formed with the purpose of forming several new schools, and the committee held its first meeting on 13 August 1873.

[6] The school had its centennial celebrations from 5 to 7 October 1973.

[8] In March 2009, education minister Anne Tolley announced $41 million for school buildings, distributed to 81 schools around the country through the first allocation of property funding under the government's recently announced infrastructure package to address lack of space or need for new school buildings.

Christchurch East School is one of the recipients.