Epsom Girls’ Grammar School: Verified State School Facts

School type: State school · Students: 2,298 (March 2026) · Location: Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand · Office phone: (+64 9) 630 5963 · Office hours: 8.00am-4.00pm

Most of the profile rests on the school’s own documents, and the roll figure is the main exception.

Is Epsom Girls Grammar a state school?

What state school status means in New Zealand

• Epsom Girls’ Grammar School is a state secondary school for girls in years 9 to 13, per Wikipedia (open encyclopedia entry).
• Domestic students pay no tuition, according to SchoolsNearMe (school data aggregator), which describes a donation in place of fees.
• Families pay a parental contribution, set at $1,095 per student for 2025, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).

Who funds and oversees the school

• According to KuraHub (school listing site), enrolment is managed by zone, and the school sits in the Albert-Eden Local Board area.
• FernHub (school directory aggregator) marks the school as operating an enrolment scheme.
• The Education Review Office’s latest report is dated 2024-02-20 and gives a composite score of 85/100, according to SchoolsNearMe (school data aggregator).

The implication: The state label is well sourced, but the funding details beyond the donation rest on aggregators, so check the official record before relying on them.

How many girls go to Epsom Girls Grammar?

Approximate roll size

• Wikipedia (open encyclopedia entry) reports a roll of 2,298 as of March 2026, of which 217 students (9.4%) identify as Māori.
• Aggregators list other totals, including 2,274, 2,303, 2,316 and 2,295, according to NZSchools.nz (school directory aggregator).

Year levels covered by the uniform guidance

• The uniform code applies at school, when travelling to and from school, and at school functions away from school, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).
• Uniform pricing splits at Year 13, with about $650 for Years 9 to 12 and about $350 for Year 13, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).

Eight profile figures, one pattern: the most-quoted numbers come from aggregators that disagree with each other.

The pattern: Roll figures shift with the source and the date, so the school’s own published count is the figure to trust once it is available.

How much does it cost to go to Epsom Girls Grammar?

Fee figures: status of available data

• Epsom House boarding is listed at $16,583.00 NZD per year for 2025, subject to yearly review, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).
• Full board at Epsom House was NZ$380 per week in 2024 and rose to NZ$400 per week in 2025, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).
• The 2025 brochure lists a $150.00 application fee and a $3,000 development levy for boarders, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).

Costs beyond tuition, such as uniform

• Uniform is sold only from the on-campus uniform shop, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).
• Boarders also pay a $1,095 school donation under the 2025 brochure, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).
• Parents may pay the donation as a lump sum or as automatic payments of $109.50 monthly from February to November, and the donation is tax deductible, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).

Five donation figures, one pattern: Epsom’s ask moved from $500 in 2020 to $1,095 in 2025, and no two sources date their figures the same way.

Is Epsom Girls a good school?

Which is the best grammar school for girls?

• No ranking method for the school is verified in the material gathered, so no ranking position is stated here.
• Edarabia lists ratings, but its retrieved evidence contains no consolidated parent review dataset (Edarabia (school listing platform)).
• According to SchoolsNearMe (school data aggregator), the Education Review Office found a welcoming, inclusive environment and good English language support.

Which is better, private school or grammar?

• Compare the annual cost first: a boarder’s bill of $16,583.00 NZD is set against a $1,095 donation per student.
• Check the roll and review data side by side, because both are contested across sources.
• Confirm enrolment rules before applying, since FernHub (school directory aggregator) lists the school as operating an enrolment scheme.

The catch: The reputation question has no verified answer in these sources, so the decision rests on cost, boarding need and a visit to the school.

Who is the principal of Epsom Girls Grammar School?

Staff members and leadership listings

• Brenda McNaughton signs the school’s 2025 bulletins as Principal, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).
• Wikipedia (open encyclopedia entry) records McNaughton as succeeding Lorraine Pound in 2024.
• Wikipedia (open encyclopedia entry) also lists Margaret A. Bendall as serving from 1996 to 2004.

Where to verify current staff details

• The school’s official website is the first place to confirm current leadership, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (official website).
• The 2024 succession date is medium confidence in this research, so confirm it against the school’s own records before publishing it.

The pattern: The school’s bulletins and the encyclopedia agree on the current principal, and the handover date is the detail to confirm.

What the people involved say

Two statements frame the money and the boarding question, and both come from named sources.

“Donations are a tender area for schools like ours – nobody likes charging exorbitant rates.”

Margaret Bendall, quoted by NZ Herald (national newspaper survey)

“Epsom Girls Grammar School is one of the few remaining state secondary schools able to offer boarding.”

Epsom Girls Grammar School, 2025 boarding brochure

Why this matters: The donation debate has run at this school for years, and the 2025 figure of $1,095 sits well above the $500 reported in the 2020 survey.

Confirmed facts and open questions

Confirmed facts

• Boarding at Epsom House is listed at $16,583.00 NZD per year for 2025, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (2025 boarding brochure).
• The Board set the 2025 parental contribution at $1,095 per student, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).
• The school’s bulletins are signed by Brenda McNaughton as Principal, per Principal’s Bulletin (school newsletter, 2025).
• The school is located at Silver Road, Epsom, Auckland 1023, per Epsom Girls Grammar School (official website).

What’s unclear

• Roll totals range from 2,274 to 2,316 across aggregators, per NZSchools.nz (school directory aggregator).
• Boarding capacity is 143 in the 2025 boarding brochure and 150 on Wikipedia (open encyclopedia entry).
• Domestic tuition status rests on SchoolsNearMe (school data aggregator) alone.
• Term dates for the current year are not in the verified material.
• No decile figure is verified in the material gathered.
• Review sentiment is mixed and anecdotal, with no consolidated dataset, per Edarabia (school listing platform).

What this means: The confirmed column is almost entirely fee and contact data from the school itself, while every figure about performance or rank depends on outside sources.

What this means for families

Epsom Girls’ Grammar School has solid records on its own fees, uniform and contact details, and thin, conflicting records on roll size, reviews and decile. Parents who get the most from this profile treat the school’s bulletins as the baseline and aggregator figures as leads to check. For Auckland families weighing a state girls’ school with boarding, the choice is clear: request the coming year’s fee schedule from the school office before budgeting, or plan around a donation the Board sets each year and a roll figure that changes with its source.

Related reading: Early Childhood Education NZ qualifications and pay · Mount Eden property for sale guide for Auckland buyers

Frequently asked questions