Last updated October 2026
William Colenso College is a state, co-educational secondary school for Years 7 to 13 at 21 Arnold Street, Onekawa, Napier. It opened in 1959 and had 371 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. The school’s site describes a Middle School and a Senior School on one campus, with te reo Māori and Ngāti Kahungunu tikanga taught to all students, performing arts including dance, drama, music and Māori performing arts, and an outdoor education class. It lists practical subjects from woodwork, metalwork and engineering to textiles, photography and digital technologies, a student support team offering learning help, mentoring and wellbeing care, and international students who live with homestay families.
At a glance
- Principal
- Jocelyn Auld
- Address
- 21 Arnold Street, Onekawa, Napier
- Phone
- 06 831 0180
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.
NCEA results
School leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above, compared with all New Zealand school leavers.
This school New Zealand
School leavers are students who left school that year, whatever year level they left from.
Who goes here
Share of the 370 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
23 international students
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.
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 August 2026, and it raises serious concerns. ERO rated achievement, progress, foundational literacy and numeracy, attendance, equity and assessment as needing improvement.
Most students arrive below the expected curriculum level and many stay there: under a third are at the expected level in reading, writing and maths when they finish Year 8, and under half are there in reading and writing when they finish Year 10.
Fewer than half of students attend regularly, chronic absence is not falling, and Māori students and boys achieve at lower rates in NCEA.
In Years 7 to 10, progress is not tracked consistently and assessment information is not yet used to plan teaching.
ERO did find strengths: most students feel valued and part of the school, relationships are respectful, te reo and tikanga Māori are part of school life, senior students have a broad range of pathways, and support for students with additional needs is well established.
ERO is not confident the school can make the improvements it needs without outside support and intervention, and recommended that the Secretary for Education consider appointing a limited statutory manager.
The statutory manager’s role would cover leadership and governance planning, the teaching of reading, writing and maths in Years 7 to 10, regular assessment of progress in those years, and attendance.
ERO’s other next steps are to raise regular attendance and cut chronic absence, bring in structured literacy and maths in Years 7 and 8, use data at every year level to see how different groups are progressing, and set up a schoolwide way to check whether initiatives are working. ERO will check progress each term and plans to report again sooner than its usual cycle.
Read the ERO reports for William Colenso College
Enrolling
William Colenso College has no home zone, so any student can apply. Enrolment starts with the online pre-enrolment application on the school’s enrolment page, which asks for a copy of the student’s birth certificate, and the school then contacts families to arrange an enrolment interview.
Schools nearby
In Onekawa Napier
William Colenso College is in Onekawa Napier. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Onekawa Napier guide →Questions parents ask
Is William Colenso College zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 13.
How many students go there?
370 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?
548. 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.
How did its school leavers do in NCEA?
In 2025, 57.7% of its school leavers had NCEA Level 2 or above, compared with 77.8% of all New Zealand school leavers.
School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 26 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). Updated automatically when the Ministry publishes new data.
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