Last updated October 2026
Bishop Viard College is a state-integrated, co-educational secondary school for Years 7 to 13 at 20 Kenepuru Drive, Porirua. It opened in 1968 and had 391 students on its roll at 1 September 2026.
It has no home zone, so any student can apply. Its site says the college was founded by the Assumptionist Fathers and Brigidine Sisters to give Porirua a Catholic secondary school, and it describes free stationery for every student, a bring-your-own-device approach based on Chromebooks, and older students mentoring those in Years 7 to 9.
Students can take on leadership roles in Catholic character, houses, culture, sport and media, and the family So’otaga programme, named for the Samoan word for connection, links families with the school and with outside support.
At a glance
- Principal
- Christopher Theobald
- Address
- 20 Kenepuru Drive, Porirua
- Phone
- 04 237 5248
Home zone
No home zone: any student can apply to enrol. If more students apply than there are places, the school decides how places are offered.
NCEA results
School leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above, compared with all New Zealand school leavers.
This school New Zealand
School leavers are students who left school that year, whatever year level they left from.
Who goes here
Share of the 390 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 March 2024. This kind of report sets out what ERO and the school will look at together, here how well direct, explicit teaching of literacy and numeracy is producing fair results for students in Years 7 to 10, after the school identified students in those years who need to make faster progress.
ERO noted that each student’s progress and achievement is tracked closely so the school can see who needs extra help, that the school has built a profile of effective teaching grounded in learning relationships, that many staff speak Pacific languages or te reo Māori and can draw on students’ first languages, and that the board has funded extra staffing for literacy and numeracy.
Next, the school planned to give teachers targeted professional learning in literacy and numeracy strategies, including digital tools, so that agreed practice is used across the school, and to make regular use of Year 7 and Year 10 assessment information to plan teaching and check whether the work is making a difference.
Read the ERO reports for Bishop Viard College
Enrolling
As a state-integrated Catholic school, Bishop Viard College gives preference of enrolment to families connected to the Catholic Church, for example a child who is baptised or being prepared for baptism, and the preference certificate must be signed by the family’s parish priest.
A limited number of places can go to non-preference students, depending on how many leave each year. Attendance dues apply and are invoiced by the Catholic Schools Board.
Families can apply online, with a printable form or with a form collected from the school, and upload a birth certificate or passport (with visa or residency papers if needed), a recent school report, the attendance dues agreement and the preference certificate. The school checks the application, holds an enrolment interview with the student and family, and then confirms the outcome.
Schools nearby
In Kenepuru
Bishop Viard College is in Kenepuru. Our suburb guide covers what it is like to live there, with parks, places and local businesses.
Read our Kenepuru guide →Questions parents ask
Is Bishop Viard College zoned?
No. It has no home zone, so any student can apply to enrol.
What years does it teach?
Years 7 to 13.
How many students go there?
390 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?
505. 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.
How did its school leavers do in NCEA?
In 2025, 75.9% of its school leavers had NCEA Level 2 or above, compared with 77.8% of all New Zealand school leavers.
Updated automatically when the Ministry publishes new data.
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Sources and data notes 1
- School facts: School details and roll: Ministry of Education school directory, 28 Oct 2026 (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).