[citation needed] It was founded in 1966 by a group of parents and teachers interested in preventive mental health.

Mistakes are regarded as important learning information and grading is never done.

The children also have a very large measure of control over the environment; the adults in the school defer their need for a tidy environment to the child’s need to experience cause and effect; to experience why order is desirable.

Originally a private school, owned and operated by the parents, Tamariki integrated into the state system as a special character school in 1990.

This group became the Proprietor of Tamariki School, and entered into an integration agreement with the Ministry of Education in 1990, to operate a state integrated primary school with a Special Character under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975.