| Waikato Diocesan School for Girls | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
660 River Road Chartwell Hamilton 3210 New Zealand | |
| Coordinates | 37°45′52″S175°16′10″E / 37.7645°S 175.2694°E /-37.7645; 175.2694 |
| Information | |
| Type | State integrated single-sex girls secondary school, years 9–13 |
| Motto | Veritate, Simplicitate, Fidelitate |
| Established | 1909 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 140 |
| Principal | N/A at this time |
| School roll | 691[1](July 2025) |
| Socio-economic decile | 10Z[2] |
| Website | www |
Waikato Diocesan School for Girls is astate-integrated single-sex girls' secondary school inHamilton, New Zealand. It is anAnglican girls' Boarding school for students from Year 9 to Year 13. It also has day students.
Dio was first established as Sonning School in 1909, situated on Milton Street, Hamilton. With only a small roll of four pupils the school began to grow, and as it did there was need for larger premises so it was moved to Anglesea Street. Larger land was then purchased and a new school built on the eastern side of the railway bridge. This school was named Sonning after the Berkshire Village from which the Whitehorn family originated. It was then that the first Bishop of the Waikato, Cecil Cherrington, wanted to establish an Anglican Girls School in Hamilton and the Waikato Board for Diocesan Schools, formed in 1927, leased Sonning School from Mrs Whitehorn. Property at the current site in River Road, Hamilton, New Zealand was then bought in 1929. Waikato Diocesan School was officially opened in 1928 with a roll of 13 boarders and 70 day girls. The school opened at its permanent site in 1930, consisting of its flagship building, Cherrington, the Homestead, a barn, which was used as both hall and chapel, and open air classrooms.
There have been 11 principals[citation needed] including Rosamond Robertshawe.[3]
The school has continued to grow and now has a roll of around 620 students.
Waikato Diocesan School was a private school until March 1983, when itintegrated into the state education system.[4]
As a special character school, Waikato Diocesan School for Girls has a strict admissions procedure emphasising Anglican practice or family history at the school. Prospective students are interviewed by the headmaster annually and are informed of their acceptance in writing. As of 2024, annual dues and fees are $10,014 for day students and $27,500 for boarding students.[5]
As of July 2025, Waikato Diocesan School has a roll of 691 students, of which 63 (9.1%) identify as Māori.[1]
As of 2025, the school has anEquity Index of 389,[6] placing it amongst schools whose students have the fewest socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to deciles 9 and 10 under the formersocio-economic decile system).[7]
| Scott | named afterRobert Falcon Scott, British Royal Navy Officer and Antarctic explorer | |
| Hillary | named after SirEdmund Hillary, the first person to climb Mount Everest | |
| Blake | named after SirPeter Blake, a yachtsman | |
| Shackleton | named after SirErnest Shackleton, an Antarctic explorer | |
| Ross | named after SirJames Clark Ross, an Antarctic explorer | |
| Wilson | named afterEdward Adrian Wilson, an Antarctic explorer |