Schools

We relocated to Auckland in January this year and faced your dilema. We chose south Auckland in Alfriston, and are within 1.5 kms, in each direction, of our house to the local primary/intermediate and secondary school (high school). Both decile 9/10, which means not much to you but denotes the socio-economic makeup of the area; 10 is the highest.

See this website from Department of Education. You can see listings of the schools by region; public/state, private and independent schools. Each school has a listing of it's decile, ethnic diversity, roll, performance. Look for the link to ERO report. This is the Educational Review Office, they undertake 3 year reviews of every school across the country. You can read these reports online free, they rate the teaching capabilities, response of students, facilities, activities and target and recommend what they see are problem areas. This is a better clue than the decile sometimes.

There are no league tables in New Zealand linked to school academic performance. A very tense topic of debate right now amongst the schools and government!

We are very happy with the area, close to the motorway (5 minutes) and 45 minute commute to central city, peak times, 20 minutes off peak.

For the price of a house in the inner suburbs with very small plots (400-600square mtr), we were able to buy 5,500 square metre plot and larger home with countryside around us.
After 6 years of living in Europe, it was the right decision for us.

If you are looking to have your children in international school, some of the higher decile public schools have international units, some have international school liason staff and there are full private international schools also.

North shore up to Albany is a great lifestyle choice, beaches and amenities etc but the commute on northern motorway over the bridge is terrible. Good school choices there also.

Hope this helps, Yolande