Last updated November 2026
Timaru South School is a state, co-educational full primary school for Years 1 to 8 at 44 Queen Street, Parkside, Timaru. It opened in 2005 and had 190 students on its roll at 1 October 2026.
Its home zone includes all of Redruth, Parkside and Kensington, and parts of Timaru Central, Salisbury, Watlington and Seaview; the zone map below shows the full boundary. The school’s site says it offers free counselling on site through the Ministry of Education’s Counselling Support in Schools programme.
At a glance
- Principal
- Brandon Payne
- Address
- 44 Queen Street, Parkside, Timaru
- Phone
- 03 684 3704
Home zone
Suburbs in the zone: all of Kensington Timaru, Redruth Timaru and Parkside Timaru.
Parts of Timaru Central, Salisbury, Watlington Timaru and Seaview Timaru: 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 190 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.
Stand-downs and suspensions
Cases per 1,000 students in 2025, adjusted for the ages of the school’s students, compared with all New Zealand schools.
Suspensions: fewer than 5 cases in 2025, so no rate is shown.
These measure how a school responds to behaviour, and schools set their own thresholds, so they are not a measure of how students behave.
What ERO found
The Education Review Office’s latest report on the school is a Te Ara Huarau School Profile Report from April 2023. This kind of report sets out what ERO and the school will evaluate together. Here the focus is how well the school’s structured literacy approach improves writing for students in Years 1 to 3, chosen because of significant literacy needs across the school, especially in junior oral language.
ERO pointed to strengths the school can build on: well-developed systems for tracking each student’s learning over time, regular professional learning for all staff, and an open, collaborative staff culture.
The school’s priorities are to keep building teachers’ knowledge and use of literacy teaching practice, and to work with whānau and families as partners in their children’s learning.
Read the ERO reports for Timaru South School
Enrolling
Students who live in the home zone have the right to enrol. Out-of-zone places are offered under the enrolment scheme, by ballot when there are more applicants than places. The board works out how many out-of-zone places there are from the number of in-zone applications and gives application dates by notice in a local newspaper.
The school’s enrolment pages have the zone description and an online enrolment form.
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 Parkside Timaru
Timaru South School is in Parkside Timaru. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Parkside Timaru guide →Questions parents ask
Is Timaru South School zoned?
It has a home zone covering all of Kensington Timaru, Redruth Timaru and Parkside Timaru and parts of Timaru Central, Salisbury, Watlington Timaru and Seaview Timaru.
What years does it teach?
Years 1 to 8.
How many students go there?
190 at 1 Oct 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?
511. 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, 7 Nov 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).