There are challenging times ahead for the Queenstown school but new principal Trisch Inder says she is well prepared. She also has the support of her pupils.
"A couple of the junior students came in to congratulate me and one girl sang Happy Birthday . . . she knew there was a special occasion," Mrs Inder said.
Mrs Inder began at St Josephs last year teaching and taking on the deputy principal role, after several years teaching in Kapiti.
Since the beginning of the year, she has been acting principal - but until last Thursday she was not sure how she would fare against a strong field of applicants.
"It is better to have good applicants and win the position rather than just be handed it because you are there," she said.
While her knowledge of the school, the children and their parents helped, she also has a strong leadership background.
The overcrowed St Josephs is waiting on the outcome of a resource consent hearing for a second site in Speargrass Flat Rd - which will allow an initial roll increase of about 20 pupils.
The school has reached its roll limit of 160 pupils and has no room to expand.
Having the support of all the other schools in the Wakatipu Basin will help - and Mrs Inder said she has met the principal of the yet-to-be-built Remarkables Primary School and expects a lot of shared experiences between them.
However, while she has a few ideas for the second site, Ms Inder is taking a wait-and-see approach.
"It is no use devoting too much energy to something which - let's face it - might not happen," she said.
Rather, she is implementing the new curriculum - which sees a new focus on national standard testing - which will occupy most of her time.
Parents have already been given information and tonight they will gather for a fish-and-chip and discussion evening.
A new teaching direction has also been implemented in the junior classes - discovery learning which encourages children to learn independently.
The model provides children with a number of resources and almost seems like play - but teachers encourage children to reflect and report back what they have learned.
"The lesson might be based on key competencies . . . such as self-management," she said.
"So a teacher will say today we are going to look after our equipment and at the end the children will say what they have done to achieve that."
