Welcome to Intermediate (Years 7 & 8) at Hūkerenui School

"Every experience for every student—not just a chosen few."

At Hūkerenui School, our Year 7 & 8 cohort is a real point of pride. As a full primary, we offer our intermediate students a supportive, familiar space to truly shine, build strong values, and grow into confident young leaders, all before taking that big step into high school.

We know these years come with unique growth spurts, new challenges, and navigating things like social media. We’re right alongside our students, providing the guidance, care, and encouragement they need every step of the way.

The Hūkerenui Difference

Opportunity for Everyone: In bigger schools, it’s often only a select few who get picked for teams, trips, or special events. Our vision is simple: every single student gets to participate in every experience.
Leadership & Real-World Confidence: As the seniors of our school, our Year 7 & 8s take on real leadership roles, build resilience, and consolidate who they are in a safe environment.
On-Site Technology: Our students don't need to travel off-site for tech! They have access to our very own woodworking area, sewing and craft room, and a six-station food technology setup.

Our Contemporary Learning Space

Our Year 7 & 8 students thrive in our modern, purpose-built wing:

Two Spacious Classrooms: Bright, open spaces designed for modern learning.
Breakout Rooms: Perfect for quiet focus, group projects, and collaborative study.
Full Teaching Kitchen: A fully equipped space where students develop practical life skills, cook, and learn together.

The Hillary Outdoors Experience

A highlight of the Year 8 year is our annual trip to the Sir Hillary Outdoor Education Centre. It’s a transformative week where our students build determination, teamwork, and lifelong memories. Thanks to the generosity of Mr Roger Dold, this life-changing trip free of charge for our entire Year 8 cohort.

Beyond the Classroom

We keep our intermediate students active, challenged, and engaged all year round through:

Academic Challenges: EPro8, Mathex, Lit Quiz, and CAM competitions.
Sports & Action: AIMS Games and a wide range of regional sporting events.
Celebration: Our special Year 8 Graduation event to honor their complete journey with us.

Ready to learn more about the Year 7 & 8 journey at Hūkerenui?

We'd love to show you around our intermediate spaces and chat about how we can support your child through these key years.

Weekly sessions at our onsite Technology Centre

THE A-MAIZING MAIZE COMPANY - a year 7 & 8 initiative

One of the first projects the problem solvers tackled was planting their maize crop. Initially, they wrote to Pioneer Seeds, who told them contractors wouldn’t come to work on such a small piece of land.

“We were not impressed, we thought we had enough land!” says Katie, who acted as caretaker for the maize.

“But we leased another 5ha, dealt with the contractors, sorted pests and fertiliser, learned how to pray for rain and then luckily sold it for a profit.”

“Finding sponsors and experts really challenged us – finding them, writing to them, figuring out what to say, and phoning, which was the absolute worst, visiting and being the squeaky wheel until they said yes. Watching the contractors when they were spraying out, spreading fertiliser and planting the seeds with their enormous machines was fantastic for the whole school.

The school is now in its 7th year of growing maize, with students from Years 7 and 8 going about their business of becoming maize farmers, creating the A-Maizing Maize Company. Besides managing the maize on their leased land, kindly made available by Mr Dave Dent and Mr Evan Smeath before that. They have also established a science trial on the school grounds where they measure the yield and quality of eight Pioneer-brand maize hybrids that haven’t been planted in New Zealand before. We are incorporating financial literacy and budgeting into the maize growing, which is aligned to their maths. We’re looking at job creation, which is part of our social science learning, and the different hybrids of maize, which aligns to our science curriculum.

We are also given the opportunity to go and watch the maize contractors and talk to them, so there is a lot of engagement with the local community.

Bastienne says the school makes around $10,000 from its maize crop, although potentially the profit could be up to $20,000. The money is used to fund equipment, such as the spinning wheels, a still to extract essential oils and a food dehydrator.

The children are very aware that without the support of their many contractors and suppliers, they would not be able to manage the risks to make money to put back into their authentic learning education.

Thank you very much to our sponsors and members of our community who all give up so much to support

“The intent wasn’t to make heaps of money – it was to make some money for learning,” she says. “We started the maize crops with all different kinds of people helping us, and the next stage is how do we develop this, so we give back to the community?

That’s social enterprise coming full circle,” explains Bastienne.

Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Education trip

EPRO8 at Whangarei Intermediate School

Year 8 Graduation

AIMS Games

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