About Our School

Pareawa Banks Avenue School was established in 2022. We are a new school who moved from our previous site at Banks Avenue School to a new site due to damage sustained in the Christchurch earthquakes. Banks Avenue School itself was established in 1956. We are a  Decile 4 urban school situated in the Richmond area. As a contributing school we cater for Year 1 – 6 students. We have variety of ethnicities at Pareawa Banks Avenue which we value highly. We have children from a range of Pacific nations, Somalia, Afghanistan, India, South Africa,  Philippines and other Asian countries as well as children whose families have moved to New Zealand from Europe. We provide a structured ESOL programme to help children learn English in their first months in New Zealand. About 20% of our students are Māori. Our school has a warm, welcoming atmosphere.  Our staff are approachable and friendly, and we have been very active in promoting a partnership with the community.  Communication with home is regular and detailed, and there is strong parental support and involvement in all aspects of school life.  Our school curriculum is well covered and there are many extra-curricular activities on offer. Click here to see these.

There is a strong commitment to community interaction.  Our school recognises the importance of parents taking an active part in their children’s education.  Parent involvement throughout the school is strong with assistance being given in classroom programmes, library, sports activities, transport, and school consultation processes.  A growing number of parents offer their time once a week to provide mentoring for individual students with needs. We also have many parents involved in a very active PTA.

Our school has a good liaison with the other education institutions in the area. We belong to the Otākaro Community of Learning (COL) also know as our Kāhui Ako. The majority of our pupils continue on to Shirley or Chisnallwood Intermediates. We have very close liaison with Avonside Girls’ and Shirley Boys’ High Schools. 

There is an after school OSCAR programme which is located in the Avon Hub building on North Parade. We also have access to another after school programme, Gen Z, to take the overflow of students who need after school care. Children for the Gen Z programme are picked up from school by van and taken off site.