Te Puke Primary School's Cindy Janke commissioned a secret surprise for a fellow colleague this morning to thank her for her efforts in going 'above and beyond” for her pupils.

Cindy secretly nominated Year 5 teacher Rochelle Watson for OfficeMax's annual ‘A Day Made Better' programme which gifted her with $1000 worth of arts and crafts, stationery and office supplies for their classroom this morning.

Te Puke Primary School teacher Rochelle Watson with her Room 3 pupils. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Rochelle is one of 15 primary and intermediate teachers nationwide to be recognised today as part of the programme.

Cindy nominated Rochelle in July after realising the efforts the Room 3 teacher puts in to ensuring her pupils receive the best education possible.

'Mrs Watson goes above and beyond the call of duty, because she has inspired the children to keep learning and do their best no matter what life throws in your path,” says Cindy, who works in Rochelle's classroom.

'Mrs Watson doesn't just teach, she facilitates and supports learning and inspires her students to have ownership of their own learning.”

Receiving her surprise this morning, Rochelle says she's truly humbled by the gesture.

'I'm very honoured to have someone speak so highly of me. I'm absolutely astounded, it's pretty surprising.

'I didn't expect it at all, but I'm very lucky with the children I've got and with Cindy who supports me in the classroom every day.”

Rochelle has been teaching for 13 years but has only been working at Te Puke Primary School for nine months.

'It's nice to be appreciated for the effort that you don't actually think about but that you love doing for the children and making sure they've got the best possible learning environment that they can have.”

Rochelle refers to her class as the 'arty type” and says the stationery will be very useful for upcoming projects including a car-free week competition where the children will be designing 3D cardboard cars.

They'll also be beginning to paint road safety messages on banners ahead of Orange Day in November.

'I think the children are very excited. We're a very arty type of class so for us that's just perfect for our learning opportunities that we can have in our classroom.”