Secondary schools Tauranga
 

Having finally decided on Tauranga as our first choice to move to, I have been looking at the websites of the Secondary schools in the area.

Anyone here have teenage kids and can offer an opinion as which are the top schools to try and aim for. I am looking at both state and independent. Our son is a decent kid of average intelligence!

Many thanks

Jayne

Re: Secondary schools Tauranga
 

Not got teenage kids yet but know a little bit about the schools on the grape vine from other parents etc.Where are you considering ?

Re: Secondary schools Tauranga
 

We are planning on buying a house that we would rent out, and then find our family home later, so we could move into the catchment area of a good school.

I have been in contact with St Peters, a boarding school in Cambridge, who confirm that our son would pay domestic fees should we send him prior to our arrival. This would help us get around the problem of him not missing much of his year 10 as we are some months away from being ready to leave, however, the fees are significant, even though the school looks great Bethlehem, Tauranga Boys, in fact all the schools seem okay. How do I find out what score they all received at the NZ equivalent of Ofsted?

Re: Secondary schools Tauranga
 

Good plan but it'll take a while to achieve. You really need to have life experience of an area before you dive in buying property to rent out and then buying property to live in. All the while property prices are quickly on the increase. We've seen typical 200 ish square metre homes on average sized sections rise $100k in a year due to the influx of Auckland investors cashing in on the cheaper properties in the BOP.

St Peters is apparently an excellent school in Cambridge if that's what you want. There probably aren't that many boarding schools around. The class of people and housing in that area is good so the quality of the pupils should also be good. Many of my colleagues live in and around Cambridge although don't think any of them send their kids to St. Peters probably due to the high costs and there's nothing wrong with any of the standard schools.
We live across from Bethlehem College at the moment and it is a very good school. Many of our neighbours kids attend there. Nobody has a bad word to say about it. Another one is Aquinas College in Pyes Pa. There's also a brand new private school just opened in Pyes Pa. Tauranga Boys is supposed to be an excellent school specializing in sports. Not sure how it does academically. You need to be aware of the zoning for schools so you know which subdivisions the school serves as it could mean the difference when deciding to send your kid there. For example, the lowest socioeconomic area in Tauranga is Merivale. Highest concentration of crime, drugs and gang members apparantly. People who live in that area will majority send their kids to the state schools that are zoned for Merivale. You'll find this is Tauranga Boys and Tauranga Girls so you may not like the idea of your kid mixing with kids from the lowest socioeconomic area?

Each school has a decile rating from 1 to 10. Research this as it depicts how much funding the school receives from the government and also highlights the quality of the children who attend and the quality of their home life. Doesn't give any bearing on how good the school is. For that you need to read the EOR report for each school but bear in mind these are only done 5 yearly so can give an inaccurate idea if it isn't a recent report.