Auckland’s biggest high school won’t accept out-of-zone students next year as population growth and roll pressure force it to close its books.
Rangitoto College is not alone. Other top public schools have told the Herald they are likely to accept few or no out-of-zone students for 2026.
Desperate parents in competition for dwindling spaces have resorted to trying to game the system to secure enrolments, as children from less-wealthy suburbs find it harder to attend the city’s best-known schools.
Rangitoto principal Patrick Gale has written to parents saying his school was at “absolute capacity”.
It lacked classroom space for more students after its roll jumped 8% to 4105, up from 3790 at the same time last year, he said in the letter.
While Rangitoto had accepted some out-of-zone Year 9 students into 2025 classes if they had siblings at the school, that wouldn’t be possible next year.
“It is with much sadness that in 2026 we will only be able to accept enrolments for students who reside within our school zone.”
Rangitoto’s 2026 policy marks a significant change for Auckland parents and students, but is a situation principals have been predicting for several years.
A West Auckland mother told the Herald that Rangitoto’s decision meant even more out-of-zone students would now be vying for fewer places at the other schools.
Patrick Drumm, principal of Mount Albert Grammar - Auckland and New Zealand’s second-biggest school - said his college was also running at capacity.
It had already received a large number of 2026 out-of-zone applications and was considering whether any could be accepted.
Any that were accepted would be children with siblings already at the school, and those places would be chosen through a ballot, Drumm said.
“As a school, we are committed to keeping families/siblings together, but capacity issues may make this difficult.”
Drumm predicted last year that his school might not be able to accept out-of-zone students in 2026 after previously having 600 names on its 2025 waiting list.
High immigration and new housing developments in inner-city school zones had left Mount Albert straining to accommodate students, he said.
“Building new schools in central Auckland must be a priority, with the existing schools in this area all at capacity.”
Epsom Girls’ Grammar School received a record number of out-of-zone applications last year as it and Auckland Grammar School together had more than 1200 requests.
The schools were forced to turn away hundreds of students.
Epsom Girls’ principal Brenda McNaughton said she expected the waiting list to be big again, with school open days already oversubscribed.
“We have announced to our community that we will be offering Cambridge [exams] at the school from 2026, in addition to our excellent NCEA offerings.
“So we have had more inquiries specifically regarding this from prospective parents.”
However, she didn’t know how many requests the school would receive because enrolment applications opened only on Thursday.
Auckland Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor said it was too early to gauge the size of his Epsom school’s waiting list.
Selwyn College in Kohimarama expects a bigger waiting list.
“The feeling we have, given the numbers received so far, is that it will range from similar to far greater. Definitely not fewer,” principal Sheryll Ofner said.
The number of out-of-zone spaces available would be known only once in-zone enrolments were properly assessed.
Westlake Girls’ High School marketing manager Bridget Ellis-Pegler said it would most likely not offer out-of-zone places to Year 10-13 students next year.
It did “anticipate offering out-of-zone places at Year 9″, though it was not sure how many would be available.
“There is significant roll pressure across all secondary schools in our area, and we are continuing to manage enrolments carefully to ensure we meet the needs of our in-zone students first.”
Westlake Boys’ High School expected to have “space to accept some out-of-zone enrolments through the ballot”, headmaster Paul Fordham said.
“But at this stage of the process, we do not know how many spaces we will have.
“In recent years, we have had a wait list of over 500 for Year 9, and we anticipate 2026 being similar.”
Takapuna Grammar School principal Mary Nixon said out-of-zone applications had been increasing each year. Demand was expected to be high for Year 9 places when applications opened on July 1.
The school typically had 85% of its students living in-zone.
“This percentage the school has maintained for a number of years and helps to ensure our roll management.
“It is easier for families to live locally to make the most of the activities on offer as many of our students walk, cycle or take a short bus ride to school.”
In its letter to parents, Rangitoto advised that, in addition to closing out-of-zone enrolments, it would be scrutinising in-zone students.
“We are working with the MOE [Ministry of Education] to add roll growth classrooms to cater for our growing in-zone roll and will be adding extra scrutiny to in-zone applications to ensure the integrity of our enrolment process,” Gale said.
Last year, Epsom Girls’ Grammar said it invested a lot in ensuring families didn’t try to cheat the zone system, even hiring investigators to check for “fraudulent behaviour and documents”.
Despite the scrutiny, desperate outer suburban and other families told the Herald in the past how they had been forced to consider all options.
That could include temporarily swapping houses with grandparents living in-zone or moving overseas.
Some had even begun attending church so they could be accepted into Catholic colleges, where fees were typically lower than at fully private schools.
“We have concluded our options are either to move, go religious or go private. We are also considering moving to Aussie,” one Alfriston mum with a son going into Year 9 in 2026 told the Herald last year.
Another West Auckland mum said her family’s life had been put on hold over the past year as they waited to learn whether their daughter had been accepted into one of the big North Shore public schools.
Her son had been accepted into several schools during the Covid pandemic.
She now believed that success was due to good timing, with the closed borders freeing up spaces for out-of-zoners.
The family ultimately chose Westlake Boys.
They had considered a move to the North Shore so their daughter would be in-zone, but ruled it out as house prices were too expensive.
It would also have uprooted them from nearby family, who helped with their youngest child’s after-school care.
Now they are considering moving to a new location, possibly in Kumeū, but are waiting to hear whether their daughter is accepted as an out-of-zone student at Westlake Girls or Takapuna Grammar.
If she isn’t, they’ll likely stay put and send her to their preferred in-zone school.
“We’ve been in a holding pattern over the past year,” she said.
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Maurice Gee wrote more than 30 novels for adults and children.