Welcome

Ashburton Netherby School is a primary school that caters for Year 1 – 6 students. We are situated in the north-east of the Ashburton township, in the heart of Mid Canterbury.   We draw from a diverse community with representation from New Zealand European, Māori, Pasifika and other cultures. We are extremely proud of this diversity and the cultural benefits that it brings to our school.

Our focus on literacy and numeracy, as well as broadening children’s experiences through an integrated broad rich curriculum which provides opportunities for children to experience success in their learning. The teaching of our Netherby PRIDE values is reflected throughout our programmes and interactions. They form an integral part of our school, with the aim that our children will develop key lifelong values of Perseverance, Responsibility, Integrity, Diligence and Excellence.

At Ashburton Netherby School we are enthusiastic about providing learning opportunities through and with information technology tools.  These tools are integrated into our classroom programmes, with each class being generously equipped with Ipads, Apple laptops, high-speed internet access, data projectors and apple TVs.

We offer a range of co-curricular opportunities for our students. We compete in athletics, swimming and cross country events with other local schools as well as entering teams in local rippa rugby, netball, miniball, soccer, rugby and tee ball competitions. The school has a successful kapa haka group, which regularly performs at events throughout Canterbury and also an accomplished and very popular Pasifika Cultural dance group. We strongly encourage both student and parental involvement in these teams and groups.

We have an enthusiastic Board of Trustees who are active in the overall governance of the school. We are a donations scheme school, meaning we have alleviated the pressure of asking parents to be busy in Home and School groups fundraising for extra curricular activities. The school donations scheme provides enough funds to cover most extra curricular activity costs, freeing both teachers and children from administration duties and time associated with fundraising. We strongly believe this has led to more quality classroom teaching and learning, which we are of course very pleased about.    

Our main block consists of 7 classrooms, several resource rooms, offices, an administration area, board room, and a staff room.  We also have an additional breakout spaces for teaching small groups of children. There is also a new Kōhanga Room, or Room 8 built for extra Yr. 0 and 1 children. All classes enjoy the luxury of abundant teacher aides time.  We enjoy our spacious grounds, which has an inspiring outlook towards the Ashburton Showgrounds.

Ashburton Netherby School is a school that prides itself on its family atmosphere within a secure and safe environment, together with a strong focus on student achievement and personal endeavour.

We are a 'Duffy Books in Homes' school; a programme which promotes reading through providing a minimum of 5 free books to all children throughout the year. The programme also includes the use of role models, who talk to the children about their achievements, goals and make a connection between success and reading.

Netherby's eight teacher school is small enough to encourage a family-type atmosphere, yet big enough to provide the same educational opportunities as a large school. We hope you enjoy our website and please do contact us if you require anymore information.

Tip For Parents

Give your child every opportunity to read to you daily. Ten minutes of reading five times a week = 50 minutes of reading time a week.

If you did this for a minimum of 35 weeks a year we have your child engaging in text for 29 hours extra every year! That 29 hours helps your child read better because they do more miles, are exposed to many words, and importantly are exposed to many ideas through the text.

It is a win - win for all concerned!

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