Tamariki School
Address
86 St Johns Street, Christchurch, New Zealand
Coordinates	43°32′48″S 172°41′22″E / 43.5467°S 172.6895°E / -43.5467; 172.6895
Information
Type	State, Co-educational, Primary
Motto	know thyself
Established	1966
Ministry of Education Institution no.	4143
Principal	Samuel Smith
School roll	50[1] (April 2023)
Socio-economic decile	4[2]
Website	www.tamariki.school.nz

Tamariki is the oldest ‘free school’ in New Zealand and one of the oldest in the world. It was founded in 1966 by a group of parents and teachers interested in preventive mental health. It is located in the Christchurch suburb of Woolston.

Its name is the Māori word for young children.

Special character

Mistakes are regarded as important learning information and grading is never done. No adult has the right to demand to see the child’s work and such access is always under the child's control. The children also have a very large measure of control over the environment; the adults in the school defer their need for a tidy environment to the child’s need to experience cause and effect; to experience why order is desirable.

The school is loosely modelled on Summerhill School.

Originally a private school, owned and operated by the parents, Tamariki integrated into the state system as a special character school in 1990.

History

The Tamariki School was formed in 1966 by a group of parents and teachers who owned and operated the school, the school was formally opened in 1967. This group became the Proprietor of Tamariki School, and entered into an integration agreement with the Ministry of Education in 1990, to operate a state integrated primary school with a Special Character under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975. In 2017 Tamariki Celebrated its 50th Jubilee.