New Zealand Educational System

 

School Types	Age	School Years
Pre-School	from 2 to 4 years old	---
Primary School	from 5 to12 years old	Years 1 - 6
Junior Primary School	from 5 to 10 years old	Years 1 - 6
Intermediate School	from 11 to 12 years old	Years 7 - 8
High School / College	from 13 to18 years old	Years 9 - 13

New Zealand has approximately 400 high schools (also called grammar schools or colleges) which can be public, integrated or private and offer a variety of theoretical and practical subjects.

Most high schools in New Zealand are public and co-educational(boys and girls) and some are single sex schools. The curriculum and educational standards of public and private schools are similar. All students are given the opportunity to sit for the national qualification and certificate exams.

School Academic Year:

The school year starts at the end of January or beginning of February and finishes at the beginning of December and is divided into four terms of 10 weeks per year. Between terms there is always a two-week break. The breaks are in April, July and September.

Term I     –     February to April
Term II     –     April to July
Term III     –     July to September
Term IV    –     October to December (middle of November for those not sitting NCEA exams– National Certificate for Educational Achievement)

• Term I is the best time to start the programme to get the most out of the academic year.
• For students interested in coming for a whole year and starting the program in July,  STB Pacific will only accept them if they are enrolled in an English Language Course for the summer holidays (December and January) when the high schools are closed and they need to be supervised.