Thank you for enquiring about a place for your son as a student at John McGlashan College. We are very proud of what this school has to offer and we’d welcome the chance to tell you about it. 


At McGlashan, we think it is important that boys learn in a positive, secure environment and aspire to intellectual excellence. They need to know where they stand and here they have skilled, effective teachers, clear guidelines, good friends, and great facilities. Of course, we want them to make the most of their strengths and abilities and leave school with qualifications and skills that will enable them to lead successful and worthwhile lives. That is one reason for our strong academic focus but, for many boys, the opportunity to learn and mix with talented, high-achieving classmates is a great incentive. Boys at every level of academic ability are strongly supported in their classroom. 

Boys need to be active too and McGlashan holds to the ideal of “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. We do not expect all boys to be top sportsmen, though a surprising number are, we do want them to be physically fit and to experience the satisfaction and enjoyment that comes from organised sport – from playing in well managed, well-coached teams. 

We aim also to make them aware of the arts and to allow them to express themselves creatively – whether in music or drama or in painting, sculpture, and design. 

Our college ethos is based on generosity of spirit. That’s the ethos that beats in the heart of the McGlashan community and that’s the character we want the boys to develop over their years at the college. 

Above all, we want to work with parents to ensure that, the boys become great men – family men, good men in their community, men who embody that original McGlashan family spirit. 


Applications for 2025 are now open.

You can find the Application for Enrolment here.

Applications for day boy places in 2025 close on Thursday August 15th 2024, at 12pm.

If you have any questions regarding this process or your application please email Kim Jellie, kim.jellie@mcglashan.school.nz.

Details of the enrolment committee’s deliberations must remain confidential and no correspondence or further discussion of the process can be entered into.


What happens when there are too many applications and too few places? 

In some years the number of applications for enrolment at the College has exceeded the number of places available. The Integration Agreement states that, in these circumstances, “preference…shall be given to those pupils with parents who have a particular family, religious or philosophic sympathy with the special character of the College...”  This means that Board of Proprietors must identify which students are “preference” students and submit their names to the Board of Trustees, who then must implement a Ministry approved enrolment scheme (apart from brothers and sons of board members, most go into a ballot) to determine final places. 

It is important that we have enough information to make that process as fair as possible.  There are at least 7 categories to take into account and we ask that you complete the accompanying form and submit it along with the enrolment application. Take a look at these on the attachment below.


Attendance Dues - Dayboy 2024
211kb PDF file | Attendance Dues - Dayboy 2024.pdf
Too many applicants, too few places
29kb PDF file | FINAL Too many applications, too few places.pdf