Amana Christian School has had its roll rise from about 20 to 80 since redeveloping its approach to learning and accepting pupils via distance.
The change was sparked by the school staff Covid-19 mandates, which ended on Tuesday.
Principal Roslyn King said it had employed many passionate teachers who had lost their jobs due to the mandate.
The increase in staff accommodated the school’s rise in popularity as it moved to a nationwide distance learning model.
It had employed five new teachers in the North Island and four in the South, along with admin staff.
Each of the teachers had more than 15 years’ experience under their belt and were "called to be teachers", despite refusing to comply with the mandate.
When the mandates came into effect last year, Mrs King and part of her staff decided to remain unvaccinated.
At the time she called it one of the darkest days in the history of New Zealand education.
Combined with the negative effects lockdowns had on the quality of education, she believed something had to change.
The school got to work on redeveloping itself to take advantage of technology which had become normalised with the rise of Covid-19, such as teaching classes via Zoom.
News spread through social media and word of mouth and inquiries came in quickly.
The school never advertised positions, but it received "hundreds" of emails from teachers around the country who had lost their jobs due to the mandate.
Under the new system, pupils were able to connect with teachers in person or over the internet for private lessons and help, while otherwise having learning supervised by parents.
It took the "complete responsibility" of home schooling off the parent while still involving parents in learning.
Some families found it hard to adapt to the new method of learning, but after pushing through the growing pains had come to enjoy it, she said.
"Our model is the way of the future."
As a private school it had no limit on roll numbers and she was open to expanding the numbers, but it was important to keep its growth manageable.
"Very little" of the funding for the new staff was subsidised by the Government.
Other school staff returned to work this week as well.
A Logan Park High School co-principal said the school had complete risk assessment assurances and she was looking forward to the rest of the year back at school.
