Ruapehu College has received an innovation award of $50,000 for a programme which mixes English and history in the same class.
History teacher Jerry Jordan and English teacher Johnny Green have been working with Year 12 and 13 students since the beginning of the year and both are excited about students' progress and enthusiasm.
"We are studying the 1960s," said Mr Green "and the blended delivery means that students get to study the counter culture movement through the work of poets and writers of the times."
The teachers aim to prepare Ruapehu students for the academic writing that will be required of them at university.
Students will be surveyed after their first year at university to see how effective the preparation has been.