About Us

Omarama School was first established north of Omarama on Buscot Station in the 1930’s. It was moved to its present site during the 1940’s and grew to a four-teacher school in the late 1980’s, as a result of local hydro electricity development. Today’s two point six teacher school serves a wider area of the Upper Waitaki high country as well as the thriving tourist and service centre of Omarama. Omarama has a wonderful community, which fully supports the school and local ventures. This is shown in our new community hall, which opened in October 2012, and the Friends of the School fundraising organisation, which organises and runs multiple events to raise money for the school. The school occupies an attractive 11938 square metre site on State Highway 8 in Omarama Village.   

We have two classrooms, library, one Funhub room for cooking and activities, covered solar heated pool, and an onsite School house. The school presently has a staff of two teachers with a teaching Principal. Support staff includes an office manager, a teacher aide, and a cleaner. Omarama School caters for new entrants to Year 8 children. 

The school provides a balanced programme meeting the requirements of the New Zealand Curriculum and our community interests. Our programmes place special emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy development. We are committed to providing individual assistance for students who require extra learning support. Programmes in Science, Social Science, The Arts and Technology are purposefully integrated through an Inquiry approach, and are often school wide themes. We like to engage with the local community when planning and teaching these units. We run a strong EOTC, Health and P.E curriculum, which promotes outdoor activity and learning, this includes annaul camps and a six week sking programme. At the end of each term there is a Celebration of Students' Learning.
The children of Omarama have regular contact with other schools with a busy calendar of sporting, cultural and academic events with other Upper Waitaki Schools. Omarama School receives considerable support from its community. The relationship between the school, its families and the wider community is mutually supportive and positive.