Our relocation to Pakiri School is complete! 

The Montessori classroom is setup and we were welcomed to the school with a very special and moving Powhiri yesterday.

We would like to say a huge thank you to the Pakiri Principal, the Pakiri School Board of Trustees, the Te Whanau o Pakiri and our parents for all their hard work and dedication to making the move a success.

We’re excited to announce that from Term 3, 2019 Pakiri School will offer two learning pathways under a ‘one school’ vision. Mahurangi Montessori Primary, which was established at Matakana School in 2009, will be relocating to Pakiri School to form the base for the new Montessori Pathway.

Over the last six months, the Mahurangi Montessori Primary Trust has been supporting the Pakiri School board with their evaluation of our Relocation Proposal. As part of this evaluation the Pakiri School board has held community meetings, conducted a survey of which there was majority support for this initiative and contracted an educational consultant (Carl Becker) to further investigate this initiative and provide the board with independent advice. He canvassed this option widely with a range of educators and principals and looked closely at other schools with successful Montessori programmes.

For the mean time it’s ‘business as usual’ at Matakana school for terms one and two.  We have an excellent teaching team for those two terms: Jane Watson and Robin McCullough. Jane was our founding Montessori teacher at Matakana School and we’re extremely grateful for her dedication to the Montessori pedagogy and support of the Mahurangi Montessori Primary Trust.

If you’re interested in joining our new Montessori pathway at Pakiri School please fill out our expression of interest form and we’ll be in touch. If you have any questions or need more information you can call or send us an email.

At the Pakiri School Board meeting on December 12, we signed a Memorandum on Understanding (MoU) with Pakiri School that will commence in term three, 2019.

The Mahurangi Montessori Primary Trust worked collaboratively with the Pakiri School Board and their educational consultant, Carl Becker, to develop the MoU based on a 'one-school' vision.

Under the one-school vision, Pakiri will offer two learning pathways:

1. Original pathway.
2. Montessori pathway.

Howard Cooper, chairperson for the Pakiri School Board, said "It's an exciting new phase in the history of our School."