The school won the secondary school attendance and engagement award at the inaugural New Zealand Education Excellence Awards held at Parliament on Wednesday.
Up against the much larger Nelson Girls College — which has more than 900 students, including international and boarding students — in the final, the Ranfurly school, with about 145 students from Year 1 to 13, was dwarfed only by roll numbers.
The finalists were selected from a short-list of 10 schools around the country, which had been nominated by their communities.
Ms Bell became emotional as she accepted the award.
Winning the national award was due to the work of everyone engaged with the school and students, she said.
"This is a big deal for us — we are a rural, isolated school and I think for our work to be seen and celebrated means so much."
Every teacher, parent, board member, support staff worker, parent who got their child to school and student had helped win the award, she said.
"Today for us proves that when we dream big and we are relentless in wanting better outcomes for our students, and we value every student no matter their postcode, we can do amazing things."
"I didn’t expect to get so emotional but I think it’s just such a celebration of the whole school community, and that’s what made it so special."
The award came with $20,000 cash, a lot for a small school, she said.
"We have some thoughts [about using the money], but what we’re really committed to is making sure that the money goes to staff and students — and something really meaningful.
"We feel like the work that we’ve done, we’ve just started it, and we’ve got more to do, so we’d quite like the funds to kind of keep that project going around, you know, raising achievement, high expectations, high engagement."
However, the final decision would be made by the next principal.
The award came during Ms Bell’s last weeks as principal at the school.
After three and a-half years at the school, she will leave at the end of term and begin with the Ministry of Education as a principal leadership adviser in Otago and Southland.
She would continue to live in Ranfurly and work from there.
"They’ve welcomed me and it has become like a second family, so it’s been a really emotional week as I start to wind up and then the school receives this recognition.
"It’s pretty special."
The award was for schools that identified key challenges or areas for development to improve student attendance at their school.
Initiatives at Maniototo, including a breakfast club, the year 10 Strive programme and a positive shift in school culture, all made a significant difference to students, Ms Bell said.
The Strive programme, introduced last year, encouraged students to dream big, make the most of all school opportunities and develop leadership skills.
To complete the programme students had to meet academic, service and extra-curricular goals as well as achieve at least 85% attendance each term.
Andrew Hunter, formerly of Balmacewen Intermediate School, in Dunedin, would be acting principal for the rest of the year while the school searched for a permanent principal, Ms Bell said.
