The cartons of long-life, reduced-fat milk will be delivered every few days and stored in a refrigerator supplied by Fonterra, to get it down to the preferred drinking temperature - perhaps a reaction to some people's distasteful recollections of having to drink sun-warmed milk in last century's scheme.
Manaia View pupils will receive their dose of good nutrition in a carton at the start of each school day, 9am.
"They can take their time and drink the milk at their desks - like they do with their water bottles - so it's not a rushed initiative," Mrs Otene said.
To deal with the potential problem of children not being able to drink milk because of lactose intolerance, the school surveyed parents but found that no-one on the roll had this dietary difficulty.
Mrs Otene said the milk would add to the school's existing nutritional programmes, such as the fruit-in-schools scheme, and providing breakfast for children who arrived hungry and lunch for those who hadn't brought any.
"Government guidelines state that children should have two to three glasses of milk a day; this is certainly going to go a long way to helping children meet that."
Of Northland's 133 schools with children in years one to six, 118 have taken up the offer of free milk. The scheme starts at 102 of them today; the rest will join in the second school term.
Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings has said that to get more New Zealanders drinking more milk, it has to be made more affordable and more available.
The price of milk has been controversial. A Consumer NZ survey last year found 91 per cent of participants thought they were paying a high price for milk, compared with other supermarket staples.
The commerce select committee has decided to continue the inquiry into milk prices begun by its predecessor committee in the previous Parliament before last year's elections.
Statistics NZ found in February that the average price of 2 litres of milk was $3.61.
