Matarau School is doing such a good job the Education Review Office will not check on it for another four or five years.
Only 13 per cent of schools nationally get reviews that seldom, with the length of time between reviews recognising the good work of those schools on the four-five year cycle.
In its latest report on the school, after a visit in May, the Education Review Office (ERO) said Matarau provided good quality education for students.
Positive relationships between staff, students and families were a strong feature of the school that supported student well-being and learning. School improvements were enhanced by experienced, capable leaders and skilled teachers.
Most students achieve at or above the national standards.
ERO said the school had excellent provision for children with learning difficulties and good use of data to meet needs and set targets.
"Most students, including Maori, throughout the school achieve at or above the national standards in reading, writing and mathematics. All students are well supported to make significant progress during their years at the school," the ERO said. "Teachers and school leaders use data effectively to plan and review long and short-term classroom programmes for students." Matarau board of trustees chairwoman Sharon Smith said the school had a wide focus on personalised learning, which aimed for as many children as possible to be self-directed learners.
"This means being empowered to make their own learning choices based on a knowledge of how they learn best.
"Also, our senior school (intermediate level) has received approval for transition to the Cambridge lower secondary programme in 2016.
"We will be the only state school in Northland offering the Cambridge programme at Years 7 and 8."
The school, 14km northwest of Whangarei, has 265 pupils.