About Us

At Mataroa School we place great value on human resources as we strongly believe that people make the most difference to the learning of our students. The BOT of Mataroa School are committed to providing teacher aid support in both of our classrooms for the Literacy and Numeracy programmes and to providing additional teacher support to students who need some booster support or extension.

We are proud of our ability to meet the needs of every individual learner within our classroom programmes. We don’t run a set programme for a child's age group but rather find out what our children's learning needs are and move them forward from there. Our teachers deliver most of their programmes through small group tuition based on individual needs followed by a variety of activities that reinforce the new concepts they have learnt. Whanau are involved in the planning of students teaching and learning programmes through regular contact with the classroom teachers. We have an open door policy at Mataroa School and encourage family members to visit our classrooms, catch up with teachers or make themselves at home in our staffroom with a cup of tea.

Our small rural school environment provides many opportunities for our junior and senior students to interact with each other both in the playground and within our classroom programmes. It also provides real life opportunities for all of our students to develop co-operative and leadership skills. We love the fact that we all know each other well and are one big happy Mataroa family – supporting each other and learning together.

Kids can be Kids at Mataroa School and we provide a range of activities and opportunities for them to do this within our playground and classroom programmes. We have a huge variety of playground and sporting equipment within our PE shed which is available to the students at break through our student leaders. Students are encouraged to use the school library throughout their breaks and lunchtimes. Students creativity and imaginations are well developed here through our arts and cultural programmes.

Our parents / family / whanau / community members are also widely involved in our school through a range of activities including BOT, PTA, sports coaching, transport for school trips, working bees, assisting with classroom programmes, repairing equipment and school books, reading with students. We greatly value the input of our school community in the running of our beautiful rural school and our teaching and learning programmes. Community is highly valued here and we are proactive about providing opportunities to get to know each other and to enjoy being part of the Mataroa School Community.

We respect the land which provides for us. We demonstrate environmental practices and share with our students an environmental philosophy through our teaching and learning programmes. We have developed vegetable gardens over time and are in the process of developing an orchard area which students all contribute to and benefit from the produce grown each year, we have school chickens and compost bins which help us to dispose of our waste in a responsible way. All of these projects have and do involve our wider school community through working bees, feeding animals or watering plants over summer, building and fixing fences and school cooking through electives.