Our staff

 We offer a junior class of approximately 16 students. Our junior teacher is Jeanine Champion. She is a dedicated, enthusiastic teacher who brings with her a wealth of teaching and life experience.
 Our middle class of approximately 17 children aged 7 to 9 years, is taught by Geoffrey Ward who is in his first year at Pongaroa School. Geoffrey comes to us from Palmerston North where he has recently completed his teacher training. His particular strengths lie in Information Technology and Science.
 Our senior class of approximately 18 year 6 to 8 students is shared between our Principal Sue Ham and our Principal Release teacher Debbie Hull. Sue takes the children in the mornings for English and Maths, while Debbie teaches the other curriculum areas in the afternoons. Debbie is an extremely experienced teacher who moved with her family to Pongaroa in 2005.
 Dinah Bowie, our teacher aide will work in the junior classroom in 2007 supporting literacy and numeracy programmes.
 The Principal is Sue Ham who came to Pongaroa School in 2003, having previously spent three years as a sole charge principal on the Kawhia Coast. She is committed to continuing the high standards of quality learning and teaching already present at Pongaroa School. Sue also takes Reading Recovery for those six year olds who need additional literacy support .

 We have a manual training facility on site and Heather Monk and Bob Duxfield run this exciting and innovative programme. Often the results are shared by the staff and the school grounds have been improved by using the technology produced by the children.

 Senior pupils also have responsibility throughout the school as prefects, house captains and monitors. Four house teams operate and occasionally activities are organised for competitions.
 The children at this school are encouraged to respect others and playground conflict is rarely seen. The students have an adventure playground available to them as well as two well maintained tennis courts, a field, undercover area for playing and lunching and a small enclosed sandpit for the younger ones to enjoy. A covered swimming pool allows swimming to be continued for an extended period of the year.

Maori

At Pongaroa School, all students are provided with learning opportunities in Maori culture, tikanga and reo. These are taught through the year by the classroom teachers.
In addition we have a weekly kapa haka class.

Library

Our library was relocated into the main classroom block in 2005. It was completely renovated and our collection of books updated. The library now provides a warm, inviting area which helps to compliment our literacy programmes. The library is maintained by a dedicated team of parent helpers.

Pupil Responsibility

Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their personal development through a number of initiatives. These include:
Acting as Prefects- a number of senior pupils are prefects .They assist the staff with playground and wet day supervision, the library, hot lunches, games and more.
House Captains: We now have 4 school houses who compete for points throughout the year in a range of sporting, cultural, fund raising and behavioural competitions.
In 2004 the children together with the staff, parents and BOT rewrote the school's behaviour plan and as a result we now have a behaviour management system which the children feel part of and which emphasises responsibility and acknowledges positive behaviour.