Key facts
- School number2894
- School typeFull Primary · Years 1–8
- AuthorityState
- GenderCo-Educational
- BoardingNo
- Language of instructionEnglish medium / other settings
- Established26 January 1866
About Mākara Model School
Mākara Model School is a full primary school serving students from New Entrants to Year 8, located 11 kilometres from Wellington city and 6 kilometres from Mākara Beach. Students are drawn from the Mākara district and Karori, with a school bus serving those areas.
The school operates within a rural setting and places emphasis on the relationship between students and their local environment. It is a member of the Enviroschools programme — a nationwide network supported by the Toimata Foundation — and is one of 153 ECE to Secondary schools in the Wellington Region participating in that network. Environmental activities include predator trapping, stream restoration, native planting, and coast clean-ups.
The school has a formal partnership with the Capital Kiwi Project, a conservation initiative focused on restoring a wild kiwi population to the Mākara area. The school's role includes pest control within its boundary, facilitating kiwi conservation learning for other schools in the area, and teaching students sustainable practices to support native species.
Whole-school frameworks in use include Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L), a structured approach to teaching and reinforcing behavioural expectations, and the Zones of Regulation curriculum, a cognitive-behavioural framework for teaching students emotional self-regulation. Both are described as embedded across all school settings rather than confined to individual classrooms.
The school describes a strong involvement of parents and whānau in school life, and an expectation that older students take responsibility for younger ones.
Enrolment
Enrolment scheme on recordMākara Model School has an enrolment scheme (a home zone) on record. Living inside it guarantees a place; living outside it does not, though out-of-zone applications may still be considered.
School donations
The Ministry of Education profile states that: "Donations may be requested".
With an Equity Index of 395, Mākara Model School is below the 432 threshold newly required to opt into the donations scheme, though a school already receiving this funding from an earlier year may continue to do so. Outside the scheme, a school can still ask families for donations, but cannot compel or enforce payment.
Check directly with the school for current charges, contributions or other costs. Learn more on the donations scheme or fees and charges at school, both on education.govt.nz.
Equity Index
The Ministry publishes this figure as a bare number — KuraData shows it against the directory-wide average, so you can see where Mākara Model School actually sits, not just the number on its own.
The Equity Index estimates the socio-economic barriers students face, on average, and is used to inform government funding and support. It is not a measure of school quality or academic performance.
Higher values indicate a higher level of estimated socio-economic barriers; lower values indicate fewer. Learn how the Equity Index is calculated →
Student ethnicity
The Ministry publishes this as a raw table — here it's visualised directly against Mākara Model School's own roll, so the shape of it is clear at a glance.
- European — 53 students (82.8%)
- Asian — 1 students (1.6%)
- Māori — 11 students (17.2%)
- MELAA — 6 students (9.4%)
Percentages may sum to more than 100% because students can identify with more than one ethnic group.
Education pathway
Nearby schools serving the next or previous year levels are shown as potential pathway options. They do not indicate formal enrolment pathways or actual student transfers.
-
Tawa Intermediate Intermediate · Years 7–8 · 15.8 km
-
Wainuiomata High School Secondary · Years 9–15 · 19.4 km
Location
- Street address399 Makara Road
- SuburbKarori
- CityWellington
- Local authorityWellington City
Official contact details
- ContactJames Appleton
- Phone+64 4 476 9522
- Emailoffice@mms.school.nz
- Websitemms.school.nz
Nearby schools
Schools physically closest to Mākara Model School, regardless of year level.
-
Wadestown School Full Primary · Years 1–8 · 5.3 km
-
Thorndon School Full Primary · Years 1–8 · 6.3 km
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St Mark's Church School (Mt Victoria) Full Primary · Years 1–8 · 7.4 km
-
Newtown School Contributing · Years 1–6 · 7.9 km
-
Bellevue School (Newlands) Contributing · Years 1–6 · 11.1 km
Explore schools in Wellington
Browse Wellington schools by type, including primary, intermediate, secondary, composite and other schools.
Curriculum
Mākara Model School teaches students from Year 0 to Year 8. The school does not offer NCEA.
Structured Literacy is taught four days a week across all year levels using the IDeal Platform for resourcing and professional development. The approach emphasises explicit and systematic teaching of foundational skills such as decoding and spelling, alongside higher-level skills including reading comprehension and written expression, as well as oral language development.
All students participate in weekly kapa haka sessions with an experienced tutor. The school holds a relationship with local iwi Te Ātiawa and incorporates local pūrākau into learning across the kura, with two teachers attending Kura Ahurea, a programme led by Te Ātiawa.
The school holds Enviroschool status and uses the outdoor environment as part of its learning programme.
Frequently asked
These aren't generic answers — each one is built directly from Mākara Model School's own official Ministry of Education data already shown on this page, so what you read here always matches the figures above.
Sources & methodology
Every fact on this page traces back to one of the rows below — official Ministry of Education data, or Mākara Model School's own published information, reviewed before publication. Nothing here is inferred or estimated beyond what its source actually states.
| Data | Source | Data period | Last checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| School characteristics | Ministry of Education | — | 7 September 2026 |
| Student roll | Ministry of Education / Education Counts | August 2026 | 7 September 2026 |
| Equity Index | Education Counts | — | 7 September 2026 |
| Address & coordinates | Ministry of Education | — | 7 September 2026 |
| Contact details | NZ Schools Directory | Current | 7 September 2026 |
| School information (AI-curated, human-reviewed) | Mākara Model School's official website | Current | 21 September 2026 |