Last updated October 2026
Nelson Intermediate is a state, co-educational intermediate school for Years 7 and 8 at 112 Tipahi Street, Nelson. It opened in 1951 and had 415 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. The school’s site describes Te Pītau Whakarei, its rumaki reo offering Level 1 and Level 2 te reo Māori immersion, which also gives its name to the school kapa haka group.
Students rotate weekly through specialist science, food technology, textiles, hard technology, visual arts and performing arts classes, and the site also lists group and private music lessons with visiting tutors, interschool sport, enrichment options such as robotics and Enviroschools, learning support and ESOL, and places for international students.
At a glance
- Principal
- Diane Webb
- Address
- 112 Tipahi Street, Nelson
- Phone
- 03 548 9572
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.
Who goes here
Share of the 415 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
2 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.
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 Evaluation Report from October 2024, covering both its English-medium and Māori-medium classes. ERO found that most students are engaged, progress well and reach the expected curriculum levels in reading, writing and mathematics, and that a steady focus on Māori students and boys is narrowing the gaps between groups.
Students at risk of not achieving and those with additional learning needs are well supported, and leaders consult whānau and use a wide range of achievement information to adjust teaching. A large majority of students attend regularly, but the school had not yet reached the Ministry of Education attendance target.
The agreed next steps are to speed up progress in mathematics and writing for the students who need it most, to embed teaching approaches that lift outcomes for Māori students and boys while continuing to improve attendance, and to put a schoolwide plan in place that strengthens the use of te reo Māori across the curriculum.
Read the ERO reports for Nelson Intermediate
Enrolling
Nelson Intermediate has no home zone, so any student can apply. Families enrol through the online enrolment form linked from the school’s enrolment page, which also lists the extra documents needed for children who were not born in New Zealand or do not hold a New Zealand passport.
International fee-paying students apply through a separate process set out on the school’s international students page. Families are welcome to visit, and the school runs open afternoons for prospective students each year.
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 Nelson South
Nelson Intermediate is in Nelson South. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Nelson South guide →Questions parents ask
Is Nelson Intermediate zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 8.
How many students go there?
415 at 1 Sep 2026.
Does it ask for donations?
No. It is in the donation scheme, so it only asks for donations for school camps.
What is its Equity Index?
454. 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, 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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