Permanent, full-time · Starts 27 January 2027 · Applications close 4pm, Wednesday 14 October 2026
If your next step is AP or DP, this is the role that gets you there — with a team worth leading on the way.
You will lead Raparapa, the Year 0–3 team, where everything starts. We are looking for a leader who knows what strong early-years teaching looks like and can get a team humming around it: explicit teaching, purposeful play, oral language, and assessment that changes what happens on Monday morning.
There is room to move. You will manage your team's budget, decide without seeking approval for each call, back your own opinion, and turn school-wide priorities into something workable in a classroom. Recent leadership PLD gets used here, not filed away.
The honest part: you will be the first face many whānau meet, and often the reason families stay. Warm welcomes and hard conversations both land with you — manaakitanga and accountability in the same person.
The POWER values — Pride, Opportunity, Whānau, Excellence, Respect — are how the mahi gets done, not a poster in the foyer.
What you will bring
- A Tūturu (Full Practising Certificate).
- Experience leading a team and teaching across a range of levels.
- Strength in assessment for learning — turning data into next steps, with others as well as your own class.
- Te reo me ngā tikanga Māori woven into everyday classroom life.
- Settled behaviour management, and a moral purpose where children matter.
- Also valued: BSLA structured literacy, Oxford Maths or Maths No Problem.
The details
- Two permanent management units and one fixed-term management unit.
- Reports to the Deputy Principal.
- Salary under the Primary Teachers' Collective Agreement 2026–2028, step set by qualifications and experience.
- Appointment is subject to a current practising certificate and a satisfactory safety check, including a New Zealand Police vet, under the Children's Act 2014.
- School visits are welcome on school days — book a time through the school office.
Apply online with a CV, a cover letter and the names of three referees, including your current or most recent principal. The full job description is attached to the listing.
Enquiries: Val Mansfield, Executive Assistant — office.ea@wairakeitaupo.school.nz
Wairakei Primary School is an equal opportunity employer.
