The young learners are aged between 5 and 11 years and love their tiny school.
When the Wānaka Sun visited last week, eight pupils were at school that day.
I received a mihi in te reo and gave an impromptu performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
The pupils then performed the Can Can on musical instruments before we all settled down to lessons with teaching principal Rachel Brown, to begin the day with current affairs.
The Upper Clutha Rugby team’s victory in the final of the Central Otago regional rugby competition had not escaped the class. Although a whole week had elapsed since the victory, the pupils remained very excited to see the rugby team’s photo on the front page of the Wānaka Sun.
"I was there," Max Watson, 9, said, examining the newspaper intently before pointing just outside of the frame of the photo.
The children quickly spotted the spelling mistake in the Dog of the Week feature on page three and reported it to the editor (who apologises to Jonny the eight-month-old Corgi, Jack Russell and Australian Shepherd cross, and Jonny’s family. It is Jonny without an "h".)
The puzzle page was a hit. Some children grabbed their pencils and did the Suduko.
Others examined the photos of 24-year-old Luke Burke, of Wānaka, who has scored a job with Rocket Lab.
Then it was time to demonstrate literacy, numeracy and music skills.
"We are planning a musical playground for Makarora. It is an awesome thing. I support having one everywhere. We are building a quartet, so we can play four musical instruments at once," Ms Brown said.
The previous week, they had deconstructed a small play hut and recycled the materials to make way for the musical playground, which has been funded by the Makarora community.
During the Wānaka Sun’s visit, the Makarora pupils focused on deciphering the manufacturer’s illustrated instructions, identified and spelled the names of the musical instruments that were included in the installation, checked the dimensions of the instruments and then measured and marked out where post holes should be dug in the playground.
This week, weather permitting, the intended tasks included digging the post holes (just 45cm deep) with spades, concreting in the poles and screwing on the instruments — a babel drum, conga drum, cadenza and chimes.
Ms Brown said constructing the musical playground had many learning elements to it and was fun and inclusive.
"They will own it more and will learn so much more if they do it themselves. A parent had offered to put it in for the school, but I reckoned we can do this ourselves."
Makarora Primary School can be found at the "top" cluster of three Makarora settlements spread over 10km of the State Highway 6 tourist route between South Westland and Wānaka.
It is nestled into a native tree reserve off Rata Rd, at the bottom of Mt Shrimpton (2002masl).
The fire station, petrol station and public toilets are nearby and it is just 16 minutes drive to the Haast Pass summit (562masl).
The school is modestly funded. Government grants in the year ending December 2023 totalled $380,398, and local fundraising drew in another $19,464.
All the children live locally but Ms Brown lives in Lake Hāwea.
Previously the Wānaka Community Board chairwoman, Ms Brown has most recently taught at Purukaunui School, near Dunedin, and at Hāwea Flat School.
She joined Makarora Primary in October last year, replacing former principal Nigel Nicholl.
Ms Brown is supported by part-time teacher Melanie Barlow and part-time teacher aide Careen Kemp.
Ms Kemp also looks after the Queenstown Lakes District Council’s Dave Osmers Memorial Library, which is based at the school.
