Kerikeri High School has won one of the top honours in a new nationwide education awards scheme due to its success in turning around Maori student achievement.
The Prime Minister's Education Excellence Awards were presented for the first time on Wednesday night at Te Papa, where Kerikeri High shared one of the five top awards, Excellence in Teaching and Learning, with Otumoetai Intermediate in Tauranga.
Northland's largest school, 1400-pupil Kerikeri High draws Year 7-13 students from as faraway as Doubtless Bay. In 2005, just 28.6 per cent of its Maori students were passing NCEA level 2; by last year that had leapt to 82.4 per cent.
Principal Elizabeth Forgie said she was thrilled with the award, paying tribute to students, staff, board, families and whanau "who have worked so hard over the past 10 years to change the stars for so many of our students".
Changes at the school had not only benefited Maori, she said.
"What's good for Maori is good for all, especially boys. Boys' level 2 pass rates have gone from 47.9 per cent to 91.3 per cent over that same period."
Explaining Kerikeri High's win, the judges said: "Staff and students present a unity of purpose and harmony that is inspirational and uplifting. This is a school that lives by the principle of ako (to teach and learn), recognising we are all teachers as well as learners."
The award includes $20,000 in prize money. The school has yet to decide how it will be spent. Otumoetai Intermediate won the supreme prize after reaching the finals in three of the five categories.
Kerikeri High also featured on Campbell Live that same evening with an item on how the school had lifted Maori student achievement, thanks in part to a programme called Te Kotahitanga.
Government funding for Te Kotahitanga was axed in 2010 but the school has kept it going by meeting the costs itself.