Last updated October 2026
Irongate School is a state, co-educational full primary school for Years 1 to 8 at 16 Walton Way, Flaxmere, Hastings. It opened in 1976 and had 194 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
Its home zone includes parts of Flaxmere; the zone map below shows the full boundary. The school’s site says it serves free school lunches every day from its own kitchen, gives every student their stationery, charges no school fees beyond small sports and technology fees, and sends Years 7 and 8 to weekly technology classes at Flaxmere College. Its kapa haka and Pasifika cultural group performs at the regional Pasifika day and the Ngāti Kahungunu primary schools festival, and sport ranges from athletics, waka ama, surfing and surf lifesaving to rugby, netball, basketball, hockey, ki o rahi and gymnastics.
At a glance
- Principal
- Nadine Rohe
- Address
- 16 Walton Way, Flaxmere, Hastings
- Phone
- 06 879 9435
Home zone
Parts of these suburbs: Flaxmere: check your street.
Zone boundaries are set by the school’s enrolment scheme and can change. Confirm your address with the school before you rely on it.
Who goes here
Share of the 194 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.
What ERO found
The Education Review Office’s latest report on the school is an Iwi Evaluation Report from December 2024, part of the Tiro Maroro pilot in which ERO and Ngāti Kahungunu evaluate English-medium schools against the iwi’s own aspirations for tamariki.
ERO notes that the school’s Māori immersion unit, Te Whare Mōrehu, teaches about a third of its students. It found school priorities increasingly reflect iwi and whānau aspirations, students are growing in pride and confidence as Māori, Ngāti Kahungunu and Pacific learners, marae visits and tikanga are part of school life, and wellbeing is well resourced with wrap-around support for families.
Achievement and attendance were hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle: half of students were at the expected level in writing and maths and a small majority in reading, and regular attendance was below Ministry targets. ERO also found gaps in child protection and physical restraint policies and in safety checks, which have since been fixed.
The agreed priorities are to keep building a curriculum grounded in Ngāti Kahungunu and Pasifika knowledge, to write a school-wide plan and step-by-step programme for te reo Māori, to bring in a professional growth cycle for staff, to strengthen teachers’ understanding of curriculum levels in literacy and maths with sound moderation, to grow staff te reo Māori in the immersion unit, and for the board to receive and act on analysed attendance and achievement data and review its policies regularly.
Read the ERO reports for Irongate School
Enrolling
Students who live in the home zone have the right to enrol. Out-of-zone places are offered under the school’s enrolment scheme, by ballot when there are more applicants than places. The school welcomes families to visit its new entrant classes before a child starts, and asks them to contact the office to arrange a time.
Schools nearby
Where students go next
Based on home zones around the school’s own address. Families can apply to any school, and your own address decides which zones you are in.
In Flaxmere
Irongate School is in Flaxmere. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Flaxmere guide →Questions parents ask
Is Irongate School zoned?
It has a home zone covering parts of Flaxmere.
What years does it teach?
Years 1 to 8.
How many students go there?
194 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?
533. 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.
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, 23 Oct 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Home zone: Ministry of Education enrolment zones (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).