"Showing character is to keep your head up in bad situations and to do our best always. Also to treat others like you want to be treated," Harry and Leon wrote.
Awards organiser and New Zealand Foundation of Character Education chairman Rod Galloway said the school had grown a great culture for learning, which was proven in their ERO report.
"If you don't teach values and elevate them to the point of importance in the school, behaviour issues can dominate the culture of a school.
"Kaharoa and Taupo-nui-a-Tia were very good at stating if you come to this school these are the ways we want you to behave."
He said if you go to most schools they will have trophies, certificates or programmes highlighting their achievement in sports or academic work.
However, he said this award was there to help recognise culture which was sometimes neglected in schools. Kaharoa principal Warwick Moyle, whose brother Peter is principal at Taupo-nui-a-Tia, said they were pleased to be recognised for their values.
He said at the school they taught all eight cornerstone values set out by the New Zealand Foundation of Character Education. The school received a plaque and $1000.