Waikouaiti School is one of four schools nationwide to win a $10,000 Treemendous School Makeover.
A joint initiative between the Mazda Foundation and Project Crimson Trust, the Treemendous makeover transforms schools' outdoor areas.
Waikouaiti School will transform its current outdoor area with native trees, garden beds and a small orchard.
There were large amounts of native birds in the area so the school would build bird feeders, as well as bug hotels to encourage insects and lizards to the garden.
The school would also create a tree-climbing confidence course for pupils to encourage co-ordination and strength.
''We are delighted that we have been selected for a Treemendous School Makeover,'' Waikouaiti School principal Trudy Pankhurst said.
It was an ''amazing opportunity'' to provide an area in which the pupils could immerse themselves in many aspects of nature, in both teaching and playtime sessions, she said.
Renwick School in Marlborough, Horsham Downs Primary in Hamilton, and Havelock North Intermediate in Hawkes Bay, would also be visited next year by the Treemendous team for a native tree-planting working bee.
Since the programme's inception in 2008, 27 schools had benefited from an outdoor transformations.
