Last updated October 2026
Monrad – Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga is a state, co-educational intermediate school for Years 7 and 8 at 228 Botanical Road, Palmerston North. It opened in 1963 and had 330 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. Its Māori-medium pathway, Tahuna-ā-Rua, offers immersion classes and a bilingual class, and places are filled through a separate application (tono) process that includes a hui for whānau. The school’s site also describes a hands-on specialist programme in food technology, hard materials, music and robotics, and mechanics and engineering.
At a glance
- Principal
- Matthew McCallum
- Address
- 228 Botanical Road, Palmerston North
- Phone
- 06 357 9777
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 330 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 Evaluation Report from July 2024. ERO found that a small majority of students achieve at expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and maths, with Year 8 results a little below Year 7, but that most students make faster than expected progress over their two years at the school.
Attendance had slipped slightly below the Ministry’s regular attendance target. ERO noted leaders who set and keenly pursue improvement goals, a local curriculum in which students see their identity and culture, a genuine commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and trusting partnerships with Māori, mana whenua and whānau. The school’s rumaki, Tahuna-ā-Rua, and its Pacific language class are a core part of the school.
The agreed next steps are to raise regular attendance and speed up progress so more students reach expected levels in reading and maths and especially in writing, to build teachers’ skill in evidence-informed teaching, and to make sure professional learning on teaching writing is applied consistently across classes.
Read the ERO reports for Monrad – Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga
Enrolling
Monrad has no home zone, so any student can apply, using the online enrolment form linked from the school’s site.
Places in Tahuna-ā-Rua are not automatic. Whānau complete the standard enrolment form and then go through the tono process, and the school publishes each year’s steps and expectations on its Tahuna-ā-Rua enrolment page.
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 Highbury
Monrad - Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga is in Highbury. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Highbury guide →Questions parents ask
Is Monrad - Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 8.
How many students go there?
330 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?
517. 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).