About Us - Ko Wai Mātou

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Our school is situated on a flat, scenic and sunny site, at the Northern end of Upper Hutt, four kilometres north of the Upper Hutt City Centre. It is surrounded by bush-clad hills near the Hutt River junction with the Akatarawa River. We have fantastic outdoor spaces  and our large playing field borders Rata Park and Birchville Kindergarten. 

Our school community is a mix of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds with our roll reflecting the multicultural nature of New Zealand society. The children are drawn from established ribbon development areas, developing urban areas, farms and small rural lifestyle blocks.  

We maintain a high profile within the community and a true partnership between parents, staff, children and the community exists. We operate in a strong and supportive culture. Active parental involvement in all aspects of the children’s education is encouraged.    

Our school was opened in 1979 and we have four main variable teaching spaces and a large hall. Our teaching spaces are named after Gemstones in line with the street names in our local community.    

Greenstone is currently the base learning space for our Year 0 – 1 learners

Emerald is currently the base learning space for our Year 1 – 2 learners

Moonstone is currently the base learning space for our Year 2 – 4 learners

Sapphire is currently the base learning space for our Year 4 – 6 learners  

We have continued to develop our environment to ensure we meet the needs of today’s learners which means that we have had a huge focus on providing a flexible modern learning environment which caters to a range of learners and learning styles. We also have been putting a big focus into developing the outdoor environment with a wonderful playground, outdoor discovery space, and lots more to come!    

We pride ourselves on students having ready access to a well stocked library, a variety of digital tools and an ever growing focus on approaches to learning that use Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts and Maths as starting points to guide student inquiry, discussions and critical thinking. Technology further enhances and makes learning more engaging as well as providing our children with the essential digital competencies they will need in our rapidly changing world.