While parents ensure uniforms are neatly ironed and all stationery is labelled, Tauranga's first independent school is keeping just as busy as it prepares to open its doors to students for the very first time.

ACG Tauranga, a private school to be operated by the Academic Colleges Group, will open for its inaugural day of classes when term one begins on February 2.

(R-L) Jackie Webb (mathematics teacher), Simon Sutcliffe (info systems manager) and Angela Collins (spanish teacher) preparing one of the new classrooms. Photo Bruce Barnard.

The school is Tauranga's only comprehensive year 1 to year 13 independent school, and offers co-ed and secular education.

Annual fees for the school this year are $14,200 for a year 1 to 6 pupils or $16,600 for a year 7 to 9 child for a lump-sum payment.

As well as Tauranga locals, students would also be bussing to school from Katikati, Rotorua and Te Puke to the Pyes Pa site.

Situated on the corner of Keenan Road and Pyes Pa Road (SH 36), the school will open with fully functional classrooms and a 200-square metre space that can be utilised for PE and assemblies.

There will also be an administration area that includes the reception area, staffroom, uniform shop and the principal's office. This will be shortly followed by another six classrooms which will include a high-spec science laboratory.

Another first for ACG Tauranga is that it is the only school in Tauranga totally based on the Cambridge International Curriculum, starting from primary levels.

Year by year, the school will take on an older age group and by 2019, ACG Tauranga will be open for children from pre-school right through to the last year of college, year 13.

Principal Mrs Chris Cottell-Mayhew says ACG Tauranga wants to offer another option for Tauranga families.

'It's about choices,” she says. 'ACG has chosen Tauranga to open its first New Zealand school outside Auckland because the area does not currently offer an independent school, and is one of the fastest growing in New Zealand.

'Parents who previously opted to send their children to independent schools outside the area now have the option to keep them at home.

'Private education is just another very good option for all parents to consider for all, or part of, a child's formal education - it is not only for the wealthy, elite or highly capable.”

Although new to Tauranga, ACG Tauranga offers a tried and tested model which has a proven record of success with its four existing, top-quality Auckland schools.

Chris says the school's teaching staff are some of the best in the country, with one role attracting as many as 200 applicants, and a rigorous recruitment process in place.

She adds: 'We chose teachers who are not only the best in their field and understand how students learn, but who also have a love of teaching and can immediately build a rapport with their students and establish that bond.”

She says the 2015 foundation students will have a special role in terms of leadership and contributing towards the culture of the school.

'To be a foundation student is a very special opportunity,” says Chris. 'These students will build relationships with students and teachers which will carry them right though their school years.”

Enrolments are now open and will remain open throughout the year. Interested families are invited to contact ACG Tauranga for a personal tour.

Chris adds: 'After years of planning, we are incredibly excited that ACG Tauranga is now so close to opening, and will soon have children in our classrooms.”