Last updated November 2026
Sunset Primary School is a state, co-educational primary school for Years 1 to 6 at 110/170 Sunset Road, Fordlands, Rotorua. It opened in 1964 and had 169 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. Its site says breakfast and lunch are provided free every day, stationery is free for every student, sport is offered at no charge, and the school takes part in the Duffy Books in Homes and Fruit in Schools programmes. It also hosts two satellite classes of Rotorua Specialist School, and school vans run before and after school with limited places.
At a glance
- Principal
- Craig McFayden
- Address
- 110/170 Sunset Road, Fordlands, Rotorua
- Phone
- 07 348 4289
Home zone
No home zone: any student can apply to enrol. If more students apply than there are places, the school decides how places are offered.
Who goes here
Share of the 169 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
MELAA: Middle Eastern, Latin American and African.
Stand-downs and suspensions
Cases per 1,000 students in 2025, adjusted for the ages of the school’s students, compared with all New Zealand schools.
Suspensions: fewer than 5 cases in 2025, so no rate is shown.
These measure how a school responds to behaviour, and schools set their own thresholds, so they are not a measure of how students behave.
What ERO found
The Education Review Office’s latest report on the school is a Te Ara Huarau School Profile Report from January 2024. ERO noted that the school teaches in English-medium and bilingual pathways, and that the school and ERO would evaluate how well changes to maths programmes have lifted achievement.
ERO pointed to leaders and staff who recognise the need to improve outcomes for every learner, attention across the school to staff and ākonga wellbeing, a culture of working together (mahitahi), and a local curriculum designed to strengthen students’ belonging, language, culture and identity.
Next, the school plans to evaluate how well its maths initiatives are lifting progress, achievement and engagement, and what difference its local curriculum is making to learning. ERO also recommended that the school develop procedures to put its policies into practice, particularly for health and safety.
Read the ERO reports for Sunset Primary School
Enrolling
There is no home zone, so any student can apply. The school’s enrolment page says a child can be enrolled by an adult at any time of year using an online form, followed by an enrolment interview, and that children starting school as five-year-olds need a birth certificate or passport.
The school’s starting-school booklet invites whānau to bring children in for short transition visits before they start, arranged through the school office.
Schools nearby
Where students go next
Based on home zones around the school’s own address. Families can apply to any school, and your own address decides which zones you are in.
In Mangakakahi Rotorua
Sunset Primary School is in Mangakakahi Rotorua. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Questions parents ask
Is Sunset Primary School zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 1 to 6.
How many students go there?
169 at 1 Sep 2026.
Does it ask for donations?
No. It is in the donation scheme, so it only asks for donations for school camps.
What is its Equity Index?
551. The Ministry of Education’s Equity Index estimates the socio-economic barriers a school’s students face, from 344 (fewest) to 569 (most). It is used to share out funding, not as a measure of quality.
Updated automatically when the Ministry publishes new data.
Spotted something incorrect on this page? Let us know.
Sources and data notes 1
- School facts: School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 24 Oct 2026 (CC BY 4.0). NCEA results, roll history and stand-downs: Education Counts, school leavers 2023 to 2025, stand-downs 2025, rolls 2021 to 2025 (CC BY 4.0).