Last updated October 2026
Garin College is a state-integrated, co-educational secondary school for Years 9 to 13 at 35 Champion Road, Richmond, Nelson. It opened in 2002 and had 635 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. The college’s site describes a Catholic special character centred on faith and character, alongside kapa haka, mahi toi (Māori art), te reo Māori and outdoor education.
Boys and girls can board in two separate hostel houses a short walk from the college, run by the Garin College Hostel Trust, and the college also runs an international student programme.
At a glance
- Principal
- John Maguire
- Address
- 35 Champion Road, Richmond, Nelson
- Phone
- 03 543 9488
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 635 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
23 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 April 2023. This kind of report sets out what ERO and the school will evaluate together, here how well schoolwide wellbeing and learner agency work lifts outcomes for students in their first year at the college.
ERO noted a graduate profile built on high expectations, well-established wellbeing and pastoral care in an inclusive setting, sound systems for gathering data and tracking achievement as students move into, through and beyond the college, and a culture of trust in which staff seek feedback and learn from one another.
Next, the school plans to make better use of data across the school to review its learning initiatives, track improvement and set future priorities, and to build more ways of connecting and working in partnership with parents, whānau, hapū and iwi.
Read the ERO reports for Garin College
Enrolling
Garin College is a state-integrated Catholic school. Its site says places go first to applicants holding a Preference Enrolment Certificate, authorised on behalf of the Catholic Bishop for the Archdiocese of Wellington, and that a limited number of places are open to non-preference students who do not meet the preference criteria. Families can talk to the college office or their local Catholic parish priest about preference status.
To apply, families complete the college’s enrolment pack and return it to the office, and new students have an enrolment interview. The site lists compulsory Archdiocese of Wellington fees alongside the college’s own fees, and publishes its open days and enrolment closing date on its enrolment page each year.
Schools nearby
In Richmond near Nelson
Garin College is in Richmond near Nelson. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Richmond near Nelson guide →Questions parents ask
Is Garin College 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?
635 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?
429. 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.
How did its school leavers do in NCEA?
In 2025, 80.4% 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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