Deputy Prime Minister and Clutha-Southland MP Bill English yesterday congratulated the establishment board of trustees and the 13-strong foundation staff members for doing "a great job" in getting the facility open on schedule and within budget for the new school year.
Remarkables Primary is believed to be the first new state primary school in the lower South Island since 1981.
The low-key opening this morning will be acknowledged with a powhiri, by school establishment board trustee Darren Rewi, to welcome year 1 and 2 pupils and their families.
Establishment board chairman Roy Thompson and school principal Debbie Dickson will give brief speeches, then pupils head for their classrooms within "Flora pod", the first learning pod to be completed out of a planned five learning pods to be built over time.
Mr Thompson yesterday said staff and trustees were very excited about the opening.
The school's opening, he said, was the culmination of two years of work.
"It's about the children [today].
"They're excited and nervous on their first day of school, so it's making sure they get comfortably settled into their new learning environment."
Mrs Dickson yesterday said another 10 pupils were expected next week, followed by another 10 later in February.
Parents were inquiring about enrolment every day, she said.
Within two years, more than 20 teachers will tutor 460 year one to year eight children in the multi-tiered school, located on 1.6ha of Ministry of Education-owned land, off Lake Ave, in Frankton.
The innovative school will feature five soundproofed and air-conditioned "learning pods".
Each pod will consist of a teacher resource area and four "learning spaces", which would cater for the different ways pupils learned most successfully.
Those areas would open out to "Da Vinci spaces" for combined cultural and science-based activities.
The school will include an administration block, hall, library, a multipurpose room, outdoor amphitheatre, tennis and basketball courts and playing field.
