About Waitaria Bay School
A quality education today,
so that our children are prepared for tomorrow.
About Waitaria Bay School
Waitaria Bay School is situated on the northern side of Kenepuru Sound in the heart of Marlborough and is one of the most isolated schools in New Zealand. It lies two and a half hours by road from the closest main town, Blenheim and its students are drawn from a wide area in the Kenepuru and Pelorus Sounds. They travel to school by car, motorbike, bus and boat.
Facilities
Although one of the country's most remote schools, Waitaria Bay School enjoys the speed of a broadband internet link through PacificNet and Araneo. The classrooms are well-equipped with computers, laptops and tablets for the children's use. The computers are networked through a server system set up through the Ministry of Education.
Outside there is a sand pit, adventure playground, play area and hard surface tennis court as well as an extensive grass playing field and a pool.
The School Library is housed in the original old schoolroom (circa 1897) which has been thoroughly modernized. The school shares the space with the Waitaria Bay Community Library which is available for use free by all local residents. Keys are available out of school hours.
The school also makes regular use of the nearby Waitaria Bay Settlers Hall. This is where school assemblies take place.
A School with a History
The school, which was opened in 1897, was built by the district's early settler families, many of whose descendants still live in the area. A number of children on our current roll of a bear the names of those pioneers.
Great Resources
Our children aged from five to 13 (Years 1-8) are taught in a two classroom situation by Principal Tineke Giddy. The buildings consist of the large open plan senior and junior classrooms, staff room, a resource area and office, which is shared by the Principal and our office administrator. There is also a combined school and public library in the newly refurbished original schoolroom. Physical activities on the school grounds are catered for by an adventure playground, sandpit, swimming pool, tennis court and extensive grass playing fields.
As we prepare our children for the future we use modern IT equipment. The local network extends into all rooms and is powered by our in-house server, which holds all data and acts as bridge to the wireless broadband connection.
Both classrooms are equipped with Active Boards, a merger of a white board, projector and a huge touch screen. It can not only act as a 'normal' drawing board, but can also display students' work or anything other media accessible through the school's server and/ or the Internet.
...and well placed in the Pelorus Cluster of Schools
Because the school is small, it is very important for us to 'join forces" with other schools for bigger events. To this end Waitaria Bay School is a member of the Pelorus Cluster , six primary schools in Marlborough's rural area which come together several times a year at various venues for events such as swimming, gymnastics, athletics and winter sports. This gives the children the chance to socialize and compete in larger groups. Waitaria Bay hosts the annual Pelorus Technology Challenge in which teams of pupils and parents test their skills with practical and mental problems.
Waitaria Bay School is a focus of the community, well-supported by everyone....
Waitaria Bay School Corporate Image
This is our school vision and guides us all in the responsibility we collectively share as a learning community for our tamariki/children. We aspire to create a learning culture and environment that supports our children to fly in their lives and their learning. This is achieved through high levels of collaboration, a focus on using evidence to inform our decisions, and through explicit development of a positive school culture.
We work hard to acknowledge and celebrate the successes of our children for both learning and behavior.
Children using the letters from WAITARIA created the values of Wonderings, Achievement, Initiative, Tolerance, Assertiveness, Respect, Inclusiveness, Aspiration.
From there they brainstormed what keywords were associated with each value and then created images from our Waitaria Bay Mural and developed the corporate image.
Waitaria Bay School Reports
Read our latest ERO report on the: ERO website