Mr Smith (39) is the winner of the 2012 Otago Primary Principals' Association Ricoh Prestigious Scholarship and will use the $8000 study grant to travel to Scotland in June and spend three weeks studying the Scottish Ministry of Education's Glow programme.
The programme is a national education intranet for Scotland, funded by its education ministry. Launched in 2007, it was the world's first national education intranet.
Millers Flat is one of a cluster of schools using a learning management system to give pupils, parents and teachers an online hub for learning and reporting. The system used at Millers Flat is called KnowledgeNet and allows pupils, teachers and parents to access, store and share information on the computer.
"The Scottish Glow programme is along similar lines, but run by their Ministry of Education, covering the country, and is working well. It'll be great to see it in action and learn from it, and bring back that knowledge to Millers Flat and any other schools here that can get some benefit," Mr Smith said.
He will have three weeks' paid leave in June to study the Scottish programme and then stay on for an extra couple of weeks. Mr Smith's wife Anna, son Noah, who will be 3 then, and daughter Olive, who will be 2, along with their new baby due in April, will accompany him.
Mr Smith was grateful for the support of his school's board, allowing him to take up the study award.
Although it was a small rural school, Millers Flat was proud of its facilities, he said.
"For example, we're a school with 35 pupils and we have two iPads, 24 computers and two interactive whiteboards. We're very well supported by our community."
