Marton School's all weather court opened by gold medal-winning Black Stick Sam Charlton

Commonwealth gold medal winner Samantha Charlton officially opens Marton School's new all weather court as students watch on. Photo / Supplied

It was a cloudless, sunny day when Black Sticks Commonwealth gold medalist Samantha Charlton opened Marton School's new all weather court.

The New Zealand hockey representative spoke to students in the school hall about her career, before heading to the court for a countdown and ribbon cutting ceremony.

Marton School principal Brya Dixon said that it was an all weather court because it would be multi purpose.

"If you call it a turf, everybody just thinks hockey and while it will be used by our hockey players, it will also be used for netball, tennis and some fitness as well," she said.

"We've made it multi-purpose so we can get as much use out of it as possible."

Following the ribbon cutting, the school's 11-a-side hockey team christened the court with a game against each other in five minute halves.

Dixon said that the board of trustees had shown a lot of perseverance to ensure that the project was completed.

"They wanted to improve the facilities for the children, all of them are playing hockey on turf surfaces now, so if our school doesn't have one for them to practise on, our kids are a little bit disadvantaged.

"Getting that facility in our school means that they're practising on the surface that they're playing on."

Raising the funds, buying the materials and installing the court took 18 months.

The estimated cost was $60,000 and Dixon said that they could not have done it without the support of charities and trusts.

"The opening went really well, it was so exciting to have Sam here to do it because hockey is big in our school, it's big in the Rangitikei region.

"I was very excited to see the work completed and for the children to now be able to use it because it's a great facility."