Our school is located in a suburb called Welcome Bay which is found outside a main city of Tauranga. Tauranga is about 3 hours south of the city of Auckland (former location of the America’s Cup for yachting). We are close to the ocean (15 minutes drive) and are one of two schools in our community.

Selwyn Ridge School is now into its eighth year of operation. We opened in 1997 due to growth in the community. When we opened, we had 12 staff and started with around 150 students. Since that time we have grown a lot to know having 22 teaching staff and around 500 students. Our area continues to grow – many new subdivisions are being built.

We are currently moving into Spring in New Zealand. We have had quite a wet winter this year and are really looking forward to a bit more sunshine! Temperatures here are ranging from 1 to 14 degrees celcius. When the weather is good, this place is an amazingly beautiful and scenic location.

Participating Students & School Demographics

Selwyn Ridge is a K-6 school. It is predominantly made up of New Zealand children with European decent. We also have around 25% of our children from New Zealand Maori or Pacific Island decent. Other ethnicities found in the school include Indian, Korean, Argentinian and a few from across the ditch in Australia.
Our school is middle range in New Zealand terms for socio – economic status. English is the main language spoken in our school. We also teach some Maori and have recently established a Kapahaka group (Maori Performance group)