Category: School Histories

French-born Father Fauvel was Parish Priest of Temuka, South Canterbury, in the 1880s. At that time the whole of Canterbury and the West Coast was

Young French boy Marcellin Champagnat was regarded as an independent type with a strong sense of justice, but definitely not academic. He walked out of

Cheeky children called the Cluny Sisters “the Loony Sisters”. They didn’t mean it; they regarded their teachers highly. Pupils called the legendary Sister Benignus “Biggles”,

French priests of the Society of Mary were the backbone of Catholicism in New Zealand’s pioneering days. They bore the letters SM after their names

The Irish-based religious order of Christian Brothers specialised in teaching. The Brothers arrived in New Zealand in the 1880s. Eighty years later they opened their

Catholic schools struggled with growing numbers of pupils in the 1950s-60s “baby boom”. They received almost no financial aid from the Government. They could not

Many Catholic women in the Christchurch Diocese were taught by Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. The first Sisters of this order to arrive

Today’s grandparents who were pupils at Catholic schools can remember their daily tasks – sweeping classroom floors, polishing desk and table tops, gathering litter and