Apart from expensive new schools with smaller rolls such as Hobsonville Point Primary School and Rototuna Senior High School, spending generally follows the number of students, although secondary schools spend more money than primary schools.
Of the 2149 schools in New Zealand, Pukeokahu School, a sole charge primary school near Taihape with seven students, spent the least - $168,000. Auckland Grammar spent close to $27 million - the most in 2017, just ahead of other Auckland mega-schools Rangitoto College and Mt Albert Grammar.
The figures show Tauranga Girls' College faced the biggest costs for textbook depreciation - it wrote off $144,160 in 2017, well above the national average for secondary schools of about $7000.
The country's biggest school, Rangitoto College, which had a roll of 3187 in 2017, spent most on on extra-curricula activities at $1,566,090 while the fourth-largest, Burnside High School, spent the most on heating, lighting and water -$335,341- presumably to battle the chilly Christchurch winters.
The chart below shows the amount spent by every school in 2017, excluding private schools. Click on one of the dots to see which school it represents or search for a school by name in the table below to see what it spent from 2012 to 2017 (to go straight to the full interactive, just scroll to the bottom of the story).
School spending has been a hot topic since the Budget last month, when the Government announced that from next year decile 1 to 7 schools that did not ask parents for voluntary donations would receive $150 per student in additional funding.
At least 65 per cent of decile 1 to 7 schools received less that $150 per student in donations in 2017, meaning they should be better off under the Government's offer. But some principals believe they will no longer be able to ask for parents to pay for activities such as school trips and camps as well, which would leave many mid-decile schools worse off or unable to run the activities.
Only 17 per cent of decile 1 to 7 schools reported less than $150 per student in money raised via all donations and for activities. If the Government insists that all these payments are considered donations - as indicated by a Ministry of Education circular sent to schools last year - the remaining 83 per cent of decile 1 to 7 schools are expected to be worse off if they take the $150 per student payment.
Check what your school is spending
Click on one of the dots on the graph or search for a school by name in the table below.
The charts will tell you what each school spends in dollars (vertical axis) and as a percentage of its overall budget (horizontal axis).
The charts also compare each school to 50 similar-sized schools of the same type for each spending category. The main school is marked in red and the others are colour-coded by decile ranking.
You can click "Expand" in each spending category to get a more detailed breakdown. From the detailed charts click "Collapse" to return to the higher level category.
You can navigate to another school by clicking on the school name that appears above the chart while you click on or hover over a school.
Data was provided to the New Zealand Herald by the Ministry of Education under the Official Information Act. As not all schools report their spending in exactly the same way some differences between schools are due to accounting practices.
Note: Throughout this article the nominal funding category "Use of Land and Buildings" has been removed from each school's total spending.
Additional reporting: Simon Collins
