KEY POINTS:
Letting pupils reconstruct a cow carcass, cover it in glow-in-the-dark paint and put it in the garden isn't a conventional primary school art project - but the slightly macabre overtones don't worry principal Melinda Bennett.
She argues the country children going to Ahuroa School near Puhoi "are well and truly used to death".
The methods the 32-year-old is using to make the once-troubled school appeal to its community are getting noticed around the country.
Mrs Bennett was last night one of four people honoured in Wellington as recipients of the Linking Minds teaching award.
She was noted for having "turned around" the little rural school near Warkworth in just 18 months.
Adding to the interest was that Mrs Bennett had only four years' teaching experience when she took on the sole charge job in October 2005, then aged 29 with two young children of her own.
The former head of maths at North Shore's Murrays Bay Intermediate, Mrs Bennett said she was attracted by "the challenge of saving a small rural country school".
Education Review Office reports on Ahuroa School track its fortunes from having a "family-like tone" in 2000 to three years later facing "disharmony" with the community and a plummeting roll as some families transported their children outside the district for their education.
By the time Mrs Bennett arrived, the school had just six pupils and a Government-appointed limited statutory manager was helping to get it back on track.
"Going from a decile 10 school with 1000 students teaching the extension Year 8 to a decile 2 school with six students, all of whom were significantly behind, was a big difference," said Mrs Bennett.
But by embracing art and sport, the students got hooked into learning, said Mrs Bennett, while fairs, a colourful brochure and regular newsletters sent to each of the settlement's 120 letterboxes started to win families over.
A transformation of the surrounding area, with more lifestyle blocks going in, had a spinoff for the school. More families are moving into the area but its decile jump from 2 to 7 in the adjustment after the last Census - the region's biggest rise - means the school faces a 20 per cent cut in its Government funding next year.
The roll growth saw a second teacher back in the school last year and it now has 26 pupils.
Mrs Bennett said up to 35 students were expected on day one next year and she hoped to grow the school to be big enough to get a third teacher by the end of next year.
Despite visiting British schools for a fortnight as part of her Linking Minds award, Mrs Bennett plans to stick around at Ahuroa School.
OTHER WINNERS
* Tom Haig (Nelson): The Post Primary Teachers' Association's young and new teachers' network national convener is involved in Nayland College's future vision "10 years out".
* Karen Stimson: Henderson High's "flexi" learning dean wants to make the West Auckland school the "school to Google" on best practice and new philosophies on individualised learning.
* Greg Thornton: The Manurewa High School head of maths after just four years of teaching is noted for his leadership.
