Facing record-high applications, Epsom Girls’ Grammar has this month been forced to tell hundreds of students they haven’t been accepted and are instead on a waiting list.
Mount Albert Grammar - with more than 600 students on its waiting list for 2025 - now expects it won’t accept any out-of-zone students the following year in 2026.
It’s forcing some outer suburban families to put all options on the table.
That includes temporarily swapping houses with grandparents living in zone or moving overseas.
Some are even reportedly attending church for the first time so they can be accepted into Catholic colleges where fees are typically lower than 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.
Schools can’t keep up
The rush of out-of-zone applications comes as many schools are already bursting at the seams.
Auckland Grammar headmaster Tim O’Connor said he had faced a tripling of out-of-zone applications over the past decade, from 217 applications across all year levels in 2016 to 764 for all year levels in 2025.
Epsom Girls’ Grammar said its 2025 out-of-zone applications were about 100 higher than any previous year.
At the same time, near-record immigration and new housing developments have left both schools straining to accommodate students living inside their zones.
Stats NZ estimated 21,899 more school-aged migrants entered the country than left it in the year to May 2024.
It’s forced schools to be on high alert for fraud.
East Auckland’s Macleans College has kicked out seven students this year, accusing families of fraudulently enrolling the children.
It also asked parents of 700 students on two separate occasions to prove their kids have a right to attend the school.
Epsom Girls’ Grammar principal Brenda McNaughton told the Herald her school invests “a lot of resources” into the issue.
“Hiring a private investigator to check for fraudulent behaviour and documentation is not something we do lightly, but we have to ensure that our community can have faith in a fair enrolment process,” she said.
No out-of-zone students in 2026?
Critics of out-of-zone enrolment say high-quality public schools can be found across Auckland and urge families to send children to local schools to help boost their communities.
Mount Albert Grammar headmaster Patrick Drumm said that - while his school accepted about 55 out-of-zone students for 2025 - it expected it wouldn’t be accepting any for 2026.
Every school’s primary purpose should be to serve its local community, with the daily flight of students across the city not being in anyone’s interest, he said.
Yet until the issue is addressed city-wide, parents will continue voting with their children’s feet, he said.
A Herald snapshot survey found Glendowie College had received 161 out-of-zone Year 9 applications and had so far accepted 34 students, leaving 127 currently on its waiting list.
Selwyn College had 191 applications and accepted seven for a waiting list of 184, while Westlake Girls High School had 512 applications and accepted 280.
Auckland Grammar’s Year 9 waiting list stands at 487.
Parents putting all options on the table
One Auckland mum received letter after letter of bad news this month.
Her daughter missed out on Year 9 places at Avondale College, Epsom Girls’ Grammar, Mount Albert Grammar and Westlake Girls.
She was instead placed on the schools’ waiting lists, which ranged from the 30s to more than 300 at Epsom Girls’ Grammar.
The mother living in Alfriston, meanwhile, said her son’s preferred 2026 out-of-zone option is Botany Downs Secondary College.
Yet she worries the school will not be accepting any general out-of-zone applications by 2026.
That’s put a move to Australia on the cards.
“We are thinking maybe it’s just time for a big change and this is the thing that’s going to push us to go,” she said.
She said she also knew a family who had started attending church to get their boys into Sacred Heart College in Glendowie.
Another friend sold their Manurewa home last year, choosing to instead rent in Botany Downs’ zone, the woman added.
A separate West Auckland mum told the Herald she had earlier been successful getting her son accepted into several North Shore schools during the Covid pandemic a few years back.
But she believes that was due to good timing with the lack of international students at the time opening more spaces for out-of-zone students.
The family ultimately chose Westlake Boys High School and now hopes to enrol his sister as a Year 9 at nearby Westlake Girls in 2026.
But they aren’t confident.
Now they’re contemplating a move to the North Shore. However, house prices are expensive and it would uproot them from nearby family, who help with their youngest child’s after-school care.
“We aren’t sure at this stage what to do besides keep our fingers crossed,” she said.
Students could still get lucky in 2025
Glendowie College principal Gordon Robertson said each school might end up accepting more out-of-zone students before the year was up.
Many schools have so far been able to accept only out-of-zone students who are on their priority lists.
Priority lists include students who have siblings already at the school or whose parents previously attended the school, among other categories.
When schools know how many students will be enrolling from inside their zones, they can then take more out-of-zone students from their wait lists.
But predicting final in-zone numbers could be “incredibly difficult”, Selwyn College principal Sheryll Ofner said.
That’s because in-zone students can enrol any time up to the first day of school.
Her school last year accepted 34 out-of-zone Year 9 priority applications before a rush of 76 extra in-zone enrolments also came in.
It forced the school to put on more Year 9 classes than were planned and put stress on its “physical capacity”, she said.
Soon one of the school’s blocks is set to be demolished and rebuilt, putting further strain on classroom space.
That’s led the school to take a much more conservative approach to accepting out-of-zone students for 2025, she said.
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