Last updated October 2026
Balmacewen Intermediate is a state, co-educational intermediate school for Years 7 and 8 at 44 Chapman Street, Wakari, Dunedin. It opened in 1964 and had 476 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
Its home zone includes all of Kaikorai, Wakari, Roslyn and Māori Hill, and parts of Belleknowes, Halfway Bush, Mornington and Glenleith; the zone map below shows the full boundary.
The school’s site describes term-long learning themes for each year group, with learning adjusted to each student’s own goals, and lists choir, kapa haka, an orchestra, a rock band, a major production and a Wearable Arts festival in alternate years, and tuition on a wide range of instruments, with every Year 7 student learning ukulele and marimba.
Students play in summer and winter sports teams and a weekly house sport competition, and the school takes international students.
At a glance
- Principal
- Corey Todd
- Address
- 44 Chapman Street, Wakari, Dunedin
- Phone
- 03-466 7251
Home zone
Suburbs in the zone: all of Wakari, Kaikorai, Māori Hill and Roslyn Dunedin.
Parts of Belleknowes Dunedin, Halfway Bush, Mornington Dunedin and Glenleith: check your street.
Zone boundaries are set by the school’s enrolment scheme and can change. Confirm your address with the school before you rely on it.
Who goes here
Share of the 476 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
1 international student
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 Report from December 2025. ERO found success and progress increasing for all learners, good quality teaching that lifts progress in reading, writing and mathematics, a rich curriculum across the breadth of learning, and strong support for learners with complex needs.
A large majority of students meet or exceed expected curriculum levels in reading and mathematics, but only a small majority do so in writing, though results are becoming more equitable across groups.
A large majority of students attend regularly and attendance is improving, although chronic absence was not yet reducing. ERO also noted collaborative, reflective leadership, consistent literacy and mathematics programmes, and useful reporting to families about their child’s progress.
ERO’s priorities are for the school to keep speeding up progress for groups of students at risk of not achieving, especially in writing, to take part in professional learning on current curriculum and assessment changes, and to raise rates of regular attendance.
The board attested that it meets its regulatory requirements, and the school has attested that it complies with the code of practice for international students.
Read the ERO reports for Balmacewen Intermediate
Enrolling
Students who live in the home zone, which the school’s enrolment page describes street by street, have the right to enrol. Out-of-zone places are offered under the school’s enrolment scheme, with priority for siblings of current students, then siblings of former students, then children of board employees, and by ballot when there are more applicants than places.
Families enrol online through the link on the enrolment page, which also has an enrolment booklet and the closing date for the next year’s enrolments. The board advertises the number of out-of-zone places and any ballot date in a local newspaper each year, and international students can ask the school office for an enrolment pack.
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 Wakari
Balmacewen Intermediate is in Wakari. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Wakari guide →Questions parents ask
Is Balmacewen Intermediate zoned?
It has a home zone covering all of Wakari, Kaikorai, Māori Hill and Roslyn Dunedin and parts of Belleknowes Dunedin, Halfway Bush, Mornington Dunedin and Glenleith.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 8.
How many students go there?
476 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?
425. 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.
School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 25 Oct 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Home zone: Ministry of Education enrolment zones (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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