Last updated October 2026
Sacred Heart College is a state-integrated, girls’ secondary school for Years 9 to 13 at 65 Laings Road, Lower Hutt. It opened in 1913 and had 828 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. Its site describes a Catholic girls’ college with religious education at every level, liturgies each term and a house system, along with drama, debating, music and a Performing Arts Centre, kapa haka and a Polynesian cultural group, sport, service and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award. A small group of international students receives one-to-one tuition and can join the school’s sporting and cultural activities.
At a glance
- Principal
- Katrina Kerr-Bell
- Address
- 65 Laings Road, Lower Hutt
- Phone
- 04 566 1089
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 828 students who identify with each group. Students can name more than one, so these add up to more than 100%.
8 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 School Evaluation Report from April 2026. ERO judged that most students do consistently well in both learning and wellbeing: a large majority achieve NCEA Level 1, most achieve Levels 2 and 3, a small majority gain University Entrance, and results are equitable for Māori and Pacific students.
Students told ERO they feel they belong, and ERO noted clear leadership, effective pastoral care and academic tracking, and te reo Māori and tikanga built into school life. A large majority of students attend regularly, and attendance is improving.
ERO’s priorities are consistent assessment and reporting in Years 9 and 10, especially in literacy and numeracy, so progress can be followed over time; stronger curriculum design, assessment and extension pathways so students are stretched across NCEA Levels 1 to 3; and effective strategies to lift regular attendance further.
Read the ERO reports for Sacred Heart College (Lower Hutt)
Enrolling
As a state-integrated Catholic school, Sacred Heart College gives preference of enrolment to Catholic families, who provide a preference certificate from their parish priest, and it also takes non-preference applications. Attendance dues apply, and every family signs the Archdiocese of Wellington attendance dues agreement.
Families apply through the online enrolment system with a birth certificate or passport (and visa or residency papers for students born overseas), a current school report and the dues agreement. The school publishes its enrolment closing date and open mornings on its enrolment page each year.
Schools nearby
In Woburn
Sacred Heart College (Lower Hutt) is in Woburn. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Woburn guide →Questions parents ask
Is Sacred Heart College (Lower Hutt) 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?
828 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?
444. 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.
Is it a single-sex school?
Yes. It takes girls only.
How did its school leavers do in NCEA?
In 2025, 93.2% 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, 28 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).