About Us
THINK, DO, DISCOVER
These three key words underpin all aspects of Riverhead School. They are the focus for Riverhead School’s Vision, Bump@r Expectations, Inquiry Learning and Riverhead School Curriculum Guidelines.
They provide coherence for all documentation, focus and direction for our school. These three words are displayed in classrooms to remind students of the reason they are learning at Riverhead School. They are the basis for our expectations of their behaviour management.
We want our students to; THINK about, DO something about it, and DISCOVER something new.
The Way We Work
Riverhead School is a collaborative environment for all learners, adults and children alike. We have three purpose built learning environments housing our Yr 3 - 8 students. Our Yr 0-2 learners also learn collaboratively. For further information regarding our teaching and learning please click here
Bump@r
Please see our Bump@r pages for more information
Our Special Character
Our school caters for a wide range of special needs children and at present ORRS funded students. The students of Riverhead School show a high empathy towards others and an acceptance of difference. Our Special Needs students are mainstreamed for all of their learning and social development. They are catered for with the assistance of trained learning assistants, who support the classroom programmes and provide extra assistance for all children when required. Our learning assistants also provide specialised educational programmes for children who require it, such as food and social group, or a movement group helping students who struggle with gross and fine motor skills.
Riverhead provides a range of programmes for students which include Junior and Senior Choir, School Band, Music lessons, Specialist Music, language learning and a wide range of different sports.
Learners are provided with a wide range of opportunities at Riverhead School. Learners from Yrs 5-8 can participate in a variety of Northwest sports tournaments competing against other local schools. These sports include; netball; rugby - tackle; touch and rippa rugby; soccer; volleyball; basketball; and cricket. Our learners also compete against local schools in swimming sports and cross country, when they also have the opportunity to represent Riverhead School in the greater Auckland area. Learners at Riverhead School also participate in learning Spanish and French (alternating years) from Years 5-8, under the guidance of a specialist Language teacher.
For learners who prefer other activities they have the opportunity to participate in the speech competition, in which we have in school and then Northwest competitions. Learners are given the opportunity to audition for the school band, run by our specialist music teacher.
Biannually we hold a Senior and Junior School Operetta which caters for the more artistic learners. This provides opportunities across the board from acting and dancing, to lighting and behind the scenes work.
In the even years, we provide EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) across the whole school from NE to Year 8. This provides a range of "outside the classroom" experiences which often children aren't able to experience.
Every year our Year 8 students attend a celebratory end of year camp in Dunedin. They travel to Dunedin for a week, accompanied by staff members and have a great time to celebrate the end of their time at primary school.
All year 8 students also have a special graduation celebration attended by the intermediate learners.
During the EOTC year, we run a school choir which participates in the annual APPA choir, where learners go to the town hall and are part of a choir made up from schools across Auckland. All learners also have the opportunity to participate in a "Kids for Kids" choir, in which the children come together once a week and sing.
Learners from Yr 3-8 are invited to join our school Kapa Haka group run by one of our amazing teachers. The group performs regularly at school assemblies, powhiris and they visit our local daycare centres to perform for them.
The Intermediate Years
Our intermediate area is called the Rangitopuni Team. Our Year 7 & 8 learners collaborate across a variety of learning spaces. The Year 7 & 8's are our senior leaders of the school and are treated as such. These learners have the opportunity to take on many leadership roles throughout the school. The Year 7 & 8 learners are taught by three teachers.
We have two school captains each year, decided upon by their peers, Rangitopuni teachers and the Senior Leadership team. The captains take control of hosting many of our school wide events, including our annual School Prizegiving. They are the face of the school and greet any important visitors that come to Riverhead School.
Our Year 7 & 8 learners attend technology classes at a local school every Monday. Each year group attends for 2 terms and learn hard and soft material technology and food technology.
The Rangitopuni team are digital with students bringing their own devices to work on. The device that is brought is of each families choosing with no specifications from the school. Most work is done online using Google Apps for Education. We do recommend the device has a decent operating system and working memory.
History
Riverhead School is situated in Riverhead Village, just off State Highway 28. Although basically a country school with a rural outlook it is situated close to the Metropolitan centre of Auckland, 26 km away.
Riverhead is a full primary with a roll of approximately 470 students and caters for children from a cross-section of society. We have an increasingly multicultural community with students of Maori and Pacific Island descent and students from other ethnic groups such as Korean, Indian, South African and Chinese.
History abounds in Riverhead. The area was once a major gum-digging site settled by Dalmatians, and this can be seen in the names of some of the old established families who still form part of this community. From the early days of pioneering, gum-digging and timber trade, Riverhead was a stopover for travellers and gradually developed into milling, market gardening, fruit growing and vineyards, and more recently heavy industry in nearby Kumeu. Much of the land on the southern boundary of the village is used for horticultural purposes, while a variety of small farming predominates to the north.
The character of the village is always changing, since the timber mills which provided employment in the area have closed, and surrounding properties have been subdivided into lifestyle blocks. The proximity of Auckland means that people can live in the country and commute to the city for work. Over the past four years Riverhead has seen huge growth with hundreds of new houses built in three new subdivisions.
Records show the School was established on the present site in 1872. One of the original classrooms, dating back to 1900 now resides at our local community tennis courts. Most of the school was built in 1960. Our large classroom block, the Kapia building, was finished in 2010 and was a huge upgrade, adding six new classrooms to our school, along with a brand new library and a resource room for our teachers.
Our latest development included tearing down the original classrooms and Administration block and building a brand new building containing three huge Innovative Learning Environments and administration block. This was completed in 2017.
International Students
Riverhead School hosts international students annually. We host individuals and groups from Japan, China, Switzerland among other countries.
For more information please click here