Ministry of Education data has revealed that St Mary’s School in Kaikorai was the fastest growing primary school in Dunedin over the past 10 years.
Principal Corrine Guthrie said there was no big secret to its success other than a welcoming environment and teaching staff that formed close connections with the pupils.
When she began her tenure in 2019, the roll was 28.
Since then, the roll had gradually grown to 58 last year — a 152% increase from 2015 when the roll was 23.
The school’s population consisted of a lot of Filipino and Indian families whom she said found the Catholic character appealing.
When she entered the school, a lot of the staff were leaving and she had the opportunity to employ a team that worked well together, Ms Guthrie said.
"I'm not a miracle worker or done anything spectacular or anything along that line."
The three full-time teachers and two part-time teachers knew all of the children at the school and had close connections with all of them.
City Rise’s Arthur Street School was also among the fastest growing schools in Dunedin with a significant increase in roll size from 131 in 2015 to 201 in 2025.
Principal Kim Blackwood has been at the school for nearly 11 years and said the increase was due to many factors.
The school had done work to retain year 6 pupils for year 7 and 8 by showing parents the differences between its primary and intermediate sectors.
Arthur Street also attracted a lot of families from suburbs around Dunedin but began focusing on building its community in its own area by handing out flyers to local kindergartens.
You could not "just rely on people rocking up" and it took a lot of hard work to get the schools numbers up, she said.
The school was now at its upper limit and had to restrict the number of pupils it could enrol from outside its area.
West Harbour school St Leonard’s School had the lowest roll in Dunedin last year with 9 pupils.
It had a 86% decrease in roll size since 2015 when there were 63 pupils at the school.
Principal Sarah Thompson said West Harbour had generally been on a downwards trajectory in terms of families with young children living there.
"I think probably the biggest thing that's impacted us uniquely is that St Leonard's is the fourth-most expensive suburb in Dunedin to buy in, which generally means that people with young families can't usually afford to live in the area."
Despite having a small roll, the school was focused on providing a quality education to the pupils it did have.
"We're really harnessing the strength of being a small school."
There were benefits for children coming to a smaller school, like everyone got to take on leadership roles and develop resilient friendships, she said.
She was "incredibly optimistic" the school roll would increase this year because it was a great place to learn.
North Dunedin school George Street Normal School’s roll had dropped about 18% since 2015 from 468 to 383 pupils.
The school was forced to slash its roll by almost 25% from 450 to 350 by the ministry by way of demolishing eight classrooms and only funding the replacement of three.
Chairwoman Holly Hammond told the Otago Daily Times the board was disappointed it had been forced to accept the ministry’s decision.
The school’s preferred option would have been to keep the number of classrooms it had and parents were disappointed in the decision.
