Wakatipu High School is expected to have 700 pupils when classes begin for all pupils after Waitangi Day on Tuesday.
Classrooms swelled to 732 pupils in May last year, buoyed by 60 pupils from Christchurch after the February 22 earthquake. At least two or three new pupils were thought to have enrolled for the new year after their families departed the Garden City for Queenstown, although staff did not specifically ask the question.
The only secondary school in the basin will take its first lot of year 9 pupils, numbering 125 children, on Thursday.
At least 17 new fee-paying pupils from overseas are included in the new intake.
Acting principal Paul O'Connor said he expected the gain in enrolments to outweigh school leavers.
"There is no fixed ceiling on enrolment numbers. We have plenty of capacity in the school at the moment. We could certainly add another 100 to the roll without panicking," Mr O'Connor said.
Arrowtown School will welcome a class of 20 pupils in year 0, or children who turned 5 years of age since the end of the last school year. The record large number will take the entire roll to at least 430 pupils, after a mid-2011 peak of about 450 because of the influx of Cantabrians after the earthquake.
The level of staff at the school, at about 25, was likely to remain the same for the term one. An entrant teacher was expected to return for the next wave of new pupils at the start of term two, or term three.
A total of 25 pupils in years 0 to 8 also would begin their studies at Glenorchy School tomorrow, including one new entrant from the township, principal Mary Lou Grant said.
The principal, one other teacher and a part-time teacher would be able to teach up to 50 pupils before approaching the Ministry of Education for extra staff.
Representatives of Queenstown Primary School, Remarkables Primary School, St Joseph's School and KingsView School were unavailable for comment on Friday.
