In 1907, Mr Arthur Daw offered the South Australian Government a half acre block in Franklin Street for a new school and teacher’s residence. The building material for the new school and residence was brought to the island by the ketch ‘Oscar Robinson’ in August of 1907. Work began and two months later, in October 1909, the foundation stone was laid by Mrs Arthur Daw. The new school was ready for use at the beginning of the year 1910. At last the Kingscote School had a permanent home. The first head teacher was Herbert Rofe.

In May 1943, delegates from Kingscote, Cygnet River , Shoal Bay and Wisanger schools met to discuss the possibility of an Area School for Kingscote. A combined committee was formed and a petition was sent to the Education Department. After a time the proposal was accepted and two years later, work had begun on a new school in Centenary Avenue.

In 1946, the Area School was ready for use. The three small outback schools had closed, and the children from these travelled to Kingscote each day on two school buses, one from Cygnet River area and the other from Wisanger. The new school was officially opened by Sir Herbert Hudd, MP, on 2 nd May 1946. Mr H.L.Townsend was the Headmaster.

The infant classes were still at the old school in Franklin Street and in 1947, more rooms were added and all classes were then accommodated at the Kingscote Area School . School colours of bottle green and gold were selected – a green tunic and blaze for winter, green dress, and gold piping and buttons for summer. The sports tunic was green with two gold bands and a gold blouse.

A spate of events in 1949 made it a busy and exciting year. The Leaving Course was introduced. The first sports day was held and an interstate football match was played. A school badge was designed, and the school motto became ‘Opportunity and Service’. A prefect system was introduced.

The 1950s were years of considerable expansion. Additional classrooms were built and in 1952, students from American River School , which had closed the previous year, joined the school, swelling the enrolment to 250 with a staff of 10. By 1960, the enrolment was just under 400.

In 1965 the Headmaster, Mr Keith Biele, the longest serving Principal at Kingscote (1958 to 1969) encouraged the school committee to make an application for a replacement school. The area school had been built when war time shortages and restrictions were still in place. Some of the classrooms had come from mainland sites, so it was inevitable that the school would show signs of premature aging.

Little progress was made until 1971 when the Department accepted in principle a suggestion put forward by the then headmaster, Mr Harry Harriss, that a master plan for the long-term development of KAS be drawn up. A dental clinic was opened, which is a great benefit to the Island ‘s school children.

As the seventies progressed the state of the school buildings deteriorated alarmingly. After the achievement of 1971, there were six frustrating years of visits by officials, sketches, plans and progress reports. Hopes see-sawed between optimism and despair.

Negotiations went on until July 1977 when final plans were approved for all buildings to be replaced other than the art and craft unit, general-purpose room, woodwork and change rooms. The green light was given for a new school of Demac construction, a flexible design, completely refurbished with extensive grounds works and landscaping, at a cost of nearly $2 million.