Last updated October 2026
Rotorua School is a state, co-educational full primary school for Years 1 to 8 at 1249 Arawa Street, Rotorua Central, Rotorua. It opened in 1886 and had 400 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
Its home zone includes all of Ohinemutu and Rotorua Central, and parts of Koutu, Ngapuna, Victoria, Utuhina and Mangakakahi; the zone map below shows the full boundary.
The school’s site describes a Rūmaki Reo unit as a special programme, a local curriculum built around Ngāti Whakaue history and te ao Māori, kapa haka, waiata and karakia for all students, and a learning support unit funded with the Ngāti Whakaue Endowment Trust that offers extra help in reading, writing and maths in both te reo Māori and English. It also lists an underwater robotics club, a programme for gifted learners, a mountain bike pump track, sports academies and interschool netball, soccer, rugby and hockey, and places for international students with ESOL support.
At a glance
- Principal
- Fred Whata
- Address
- 1249 Arawa Street, Rotorua Central, Rotorua
- Phone
- 07 348 8159
Home zone
Suburbs in the zone: all of Rotorua Central and Ohinemutu.
Parts of Koutu Rotorua, Ngapuna Rotorua, Victoria, Utuhina Rotorua and Mangakakahi Rotorua: check your street.
Zone boundaries are set by the school’s enrolment scheme and can change. Confirm your address with the school before you rely on it.
Who goes here
Share of the 400 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 School Report from May 2026. ERO found good quality teaching, a curriculum that builds foundation skills in literacy and maths in both languages, strong support for students with complex and additional learning needs, effective use of technology, and leadership in the rumaki unit that is relational and culturally fluent.
Students show strong pride in their culture, identity and language. In the classes that follow the New Zealand Curriculum, though, only a small majority of students meet the expected curriculum level in reading, writing and maths, and results are not yet fair across groups; in the rumaki unit a large majority meet expectations in pānui and tuhituhi and a small majority in pāngarau.
Less than a third of students attend school regularly, attendance is not yet improving and chronic absence is not falling.
ERO also said the board needs to make sure the school is a physically and emotionally safe place to learn, found a compliance breach over a teacher without a practising certificate that the board has since fixed, and asked NZQA to follow up on the school’s self-review of its care for international students.
The key priorities are to analyse achievement information more closely for priority groups, check which strategies and interventions are speeding up progress for students most at risk, strengthen whānau engagement and entry expectations for the rumaki unit, and lift regular attendance while reducing chronic absence.
Read the ERO reports for Rotorua School
Enrolling
Students who live in the home zone have the right to enrol, with proof of address. Out-of-zone places are offered under the school’s enrolment scheme, by ballot when there are more applicants than places, with priority first for students accepted into the Rūmaki Reo unit and then for siblings of current students. The board publishes the number of out-of-zone places and the application closing date by public notice each year.
Families are asked to contact the school to talk about enrolling, and international students apply through a separate process set out on the school’s site.
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 Rotorua Central
Rotorua School is in Rotorua Central. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Rotorua Central guide →Questions parents ask
Is Rotorua School zoned?
It has a home zone covering all of Rotorua Central and Ohinemutu and parts of Koutu Rotorua, Ngapuna Rotorua, Victoria, Utuhina Rotorua and Mangakakahi Rotorua.
What years does it teach?
Years 1 to 8.
How many students go there?
400 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?
522. 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.
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Sources and data notes 1
- School facts: School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 24 Oct 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Home zone: Ministry of Education enrolment zones (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).