Last updated October 2026
Lytton High School is a state, co-educational secondary school for Years 9 to 13 at 347 Nelson Road, Gisborne. It opened in 1961 and had 551 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. The school runs Te Whare Whai Hua, a teen parent unit on site with its own licensed early learning centre for children up to five, and its kapa haka team performs at local and national level.
Sports on offer include waka ama, ki-o-rahi, basketball, hockey and netball, and the whole school competes in house sports through the year.
At a glance
- Principal
- Craig Christophers (Acting)
- Address
- 347 Nelson Road, Gisborne
- Phone
- 06 868 5193
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 551 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.
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 School Evaluation Report from August 2024. ERO said the school needs to improve so that every learner is engaged, progressing and achieving.
In NCEA, a small majority of students gained Levels 2 and 3 but less than half gained Level 1. Less than half of students attended regularly, far short of the Ministry of Education target, although regular attendance had risen a little over the year before.
Dependable information on how Year 9 and 10 students were progressing had not yet been gathered and analysed. On the positive side, students and teachers relate well, the caring and inclusive environment noted in earlier reviews has continued, students with complex needs get varied opportunities, and a Vocational Pathways programme offers career-based learning and work experience.
ERO’s agreed next steps are decisive leadership at every level, a schoolwide system for collecting and using dependable assessment, attendance and wellbeing information, higher targets for leaders, staff and students, and professional learning to lift teaching and assessment practice.
ERO also recommended that the Secretary for Education call a case conference with key stakeholders on how to bring about these changes, including much higher attendance and achievement.
Read the ERO reports for Lytton High School
Enrolling
Lytton High School has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
Families can fill in the online application linked from the school’s enrolment page, or collect a paper form from the school office.
Schools nearby
In Riverdale Gisborne
Lytton High School is in Riverdale Gisborne. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Riverdale Gisborne guide →Questions parents ask
Is Lytton High School 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?
551 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?
526. 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, 57.1% 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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