Orange Public School began at about the same time as Lister and Tom were trying to find gold at Ophir over 150 years ago. At that time Orange was just a small but quickly growing village. When residents held a public meeting and raised funds, work began on a school.  It opened in December 1852 in Anson Street (on the site of the current K-Mart car park near the Old Town Hall) with 37 students under the teachership of Mr. T.G. Kenman and his wife.
 
However, just 12 years later in 1864, the school had outgrown this site and a new site of 1 acre was purchased and a new school building and teacher’s residence were erected.  In 1875 the local Inspector of Schools reported that the existing school building was far too small and it was decided to divide the school into two departments.

The existing building was enlarged at a cost of 1145 Pounds (approx. $2290) and a separate Infants Department fronting Sale Street was established in 1877 with 91 pupils. The following year the Primary School was divided into Boys and Girls Departments.

By 1878, the rapid increase in the Primary school enrolments forced a further move and 2 acres of land was purchased from Mr. W. T. Evans in December 1878 on the present site and the new buildings commenced. By 1882 there were 673 pupils enrolled. The initial building cost was 8440 Pounds with an additional acre of land being added to the site in 1916.

The foundation stone of the new school was laid by Sir Henry Parkes on 30th October, 1880 and opened to students in September 1881.

Continued growth caused extensive alterations and additions to be made in 1907. In 1910 enrolments forced a new Infants building, to accommodate 300 pupils, to be erected. This is the current site of the Orange Cultural Centre in Sale Street.

Super primary classes were established in 1909 but the classes were housed in the old Lands Office building in Kite Street.

In 1922 after representations from the Local Member Hon. J.C.L. Fitzpatrick, it was decided to build a new Girl’s School which opened in February 1925.

After Orange High School was established in 1912, the secondary classes were transferred but in 1922 Agricultural Science classes for boys and Domestic classes for girls were set up and a special secondary department came into being to cope with courses for Rural Schools. In 1928, additions to the Rural School were added as six rooms on the Kite Street frontage of the Girl’s School.