Last updated October 2026
St John’s College is a state-integrated, boys’ secondary school for Years 9 to 13 at 85 Hillcrest Road, Hillcrest, Hamilton. It opened in 1960 and had 932 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. Its website describes a Marist Catholic boys’ school with two whānau classes for boys who identify with Māori kaupapa, which start each day with a himene, karakia and tikanga, and an Athlete Development Programme that selected Year 9 and 10 students take in place of a technology or arts option.
Sports on its site include basketball, cricket, hockey, football, rowing and rugby, and international students join mainstream classes with English language tutoring, small ESOL classes and homestay families.
At a glance
- Principal
- Shane Tong
- Address
- 85 Hillcrest Road, Hillcrest, Hamilton
- Phone
- 07 856 7091
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 932 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
16 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.
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 Te Ara Huarau School Profile Report from July 2023. This type of report sets out the focus for the school’s improvement work with ERO rather than judging results.
ERO and the school are looking at how well each learning area’s raising attainment plan lifts outcomes, and ERO named strengths that include a clear annual plan, a positive and inclusive culture, NCEA results that have stayed strong over time, growing self-review across the school, and senior leaders who know their achievement data and target support to groups of students.
The school’s priorities are to embed mātauranga Māori so that students’ language, culture and identity support their learning, to build digital fluency for more equitable outcomes, particularly for diverse learners, and to review access to science, technology, engineering and maths pathways for all students, with a focus on Pacific and Māori students.
Read the ERO reports for St John’s College (Hillcrest)
Enrolling
As a Catholic state-integrated school, St John’s gives preference to boys whose families have a connection with the Catholic faith.
Families meet their Parish Priest to obtain a preference certificate before applying online, and the college’s enrolment policy sets the order of priority when there are more applicants than places. Non-preference applications are considered only if places remain, and the college says few have been accepted in recent years.
Attendance dues are compulsory and are collected for the Catholic Diocese of Hamilton. The college publishes its application closing date and process on its enrolment page, and successful applicants are invited to a short interview and an orientation day.
Schools nearby
In Hillcrest
St John's College (Hillcrest) is in Hillcrest. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Questions parents ask
Is St John's College (Hillcrest) zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 9 to 13.
How many students go there?
932 at 1 Sep 2026.
Does it ask for donations?
It may. It is not in the donation scheme, so it can ask families for donations.
What is its Equity Index?
428. 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.
Is it a single-sex school?
Yes. It takes boys only.
How did its school leavers do in NCEA?
In 2025, 93.9% 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, 22 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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