Last updated October 2026
Tuakau College is a state, co-educational secondary school for Years 7 to 13 at Elizabeth Street, Tuakau. It opened in 1974 and had 994 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
Its home zone includes all of Mercer, Pōkeno and Tuakau, and parts of Mangatāwhiri, Buckland, Pukekawa, Meremere and Onewhero; the zone map below shows the full boundary. The college’s website lists kapa haka and Pasifika groups, sport, whaanau houses, guidance and learning support, and its enrolment page has information on its Reo Rua and Pumanawa programmes.
At a glance
- Principal
- Donna Tupaea-Petero
- Address
- Elizabeth Street, Tuakau
- Phone
- 09 236 8521
Home zone
Suburbs in the zone: all of Pōkeno near Pukekohe, Mercer near Pukekohe and Tuakau near Pukekohe.
Parts of Mangatāwhiri near Pukekohe, Buckland Pukekohe, Pukekawa near Pukekohe, Meremere near Pukekohe and Onewhero near Pukekohe: 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.
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 994 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
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 college is a Te Ara Huarau School Profile Report from June 2023. ERO and the college agreed to evaluate how well trustees, leaders and teachers use data to improve outcomes, with the aims of speeding up progress towards NCEA, strengthening literacy and numeracy and supporting Māori to succeed as Māori.
ERO noted an inclusive school that celebrates success, a range of data used to track students’ academic and social progress, and a quick and effective response to change during the shift to hybrid learning.
For its next steps, the college is working on a shared, consistent way of choosing and using assessment tools so staff become more confident with data. It is also building systems to share, analyse and report data at every level of the school to guide planning and decisions.
Read the ERO reports for Tuakau College
Enrolling
Students who live in the home zone are entitled to enrol, with proof of residence. The college’s enrolment page has the zone map and a list of in-zone streets, and families can enrol online.
Out-of-zone places are offered under the enrolment scheme, in priority order, by ballot when there are more applicants than places. The college advertises out-of-zone places, application deadlines and any ballot in a newspaper notice each year.
Schools nearby
In Tuakau near Pukekohe
Tuakau College is in Tuakau near Pukekohe. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Tuakau near Pukekohe guide →Questions parents ask
Is Tuakau College zoned?
It has a home zone covering all of Pōkeno near Pukekohe, Mercer near Pukekohe and Tuakau near Pukekohe and parts of Mangatāwhiri near Pukekohe, Buckland Pukekohe, Pukekawa near Pukekohe, Meremere near Pukekohe and Onewhero near Pukekohe.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 13.
How many students go there?
994 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?
485. 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, 80.6% of its school leavers had NCEA Level 2 or above, compared with 77.8% of all New Zealand school leavers.
Updated automatically when the Ministry publishes new data.
Spotted something incorrect on this page? Let us know.
Sources and data notes 1
- School facts: School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 26 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).