St Mary's College Wellington is situated in the suburb of Thorndon in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The school is a state-integrated all-girls Catholic secondary school for years 9–13.

History

The school, which is one of the oldest existing schools in New Zealand, was founded in 1850 by Philippe Viard, first Bishop of Wellington and staffed from 1861 by a small group of religious sisters, the "Sisters of Mary", established by Viard. Part of the land on which the school is situated was donated by Lord Petre, the 11th Baron Petre (1793–1850), who was a director of the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model focused on the systematic colonisation of New Zealand. The company was formed to carry out the principl ...

and whose family seat

Thorndon Hall Thorndon Hall is a Georgian Palladian country house within Thorndon Park, Ingrave, Essex, England, approximately two miles south of Brentwood and from central London. Formerly the country seat of the Petre family who now reside at nearby In ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

was an important centre of Catholic Recusancy from the time of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

. Another part of the site was given by

Sir George Grey Sir George Grey, KCB (14 April 1812 – 19 September 1898) was a British soldier, explorer, colonial administrator and writer. He served in a succession of governing positions: Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Go ...

Governor of New Zealand The governor-general of New Zealand ( mi, te kāwana tianara o Aotearoa) is the viceregal representative of the monarch of New Zealand, currently King Charles III. As the King is concurrently the monarch of 14 other Commonwealth realms and l ...

out of public funds. In 1861 the school was taken over by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

(absorbing the earlier group) when they arrived in Wellington in that year. To begin with, the school was co-educational (boys and girls) and had a boarding facility attached. Nowadays the boarding facility is gone, and it is a single sex girls' school.

Buildings

While most traces of the original buildings on the site have disappeared, buildings dating from the twentieth century as the latest, including the "Gabriel Block" which is now used as the school hall. The other two main blocks are "Carlow" and "McAuley". McAuley is named after Sister

Catherine McAuley Catherine McAuley, RSM (29 September 1778 – 11 November 1841) was an Irish Catholic religious sister who founded the Sisters of Mercy in 1831.Austin, Mary Stanislas"Sisters of Mercy."''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Ap ...

, who used her inherited fortune to found the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland. The school remains in the ownership of the Sisters of Mercy and describes itself as a "Mercy School". The Gabriel Hall and St Joseph's Providence Porch have Category II listings with the

New Zealand Historic Places Trust Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

. As most other New Zealand Schools do, students in years 11–13 sit NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) examinations.

Characteristics

* Number of Teachers: 33 * International Students: 4 * Ethnic make up of students: New Zealand European/Pākehā, 45%; Pacific, 22%; Māori, 16%; ; Asian, 14%; Other, 3%

Notable alumnae

* Margaret Butler (1883–1947) – sculptor. * Pip Desmond – Author and journalist. *

Patricia Grace Patricia Frances Grace (; born 17 August 1937) is a New Zealand Māori writer of novels, short stories, and children's books. She began writing as a young adult, while working as a teacher. Her early short stories were published in magazines ...

(born 1937) – writer. * Ainsleyana Puleiata (born 2000) - international

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player. *

Saviour Tui Saviour Tui (born 17 October 2001) is a Samoa netball international. Tui was a member of three title winning teams in New Zealand's National Netball League. In 2018 and 2019, Tui won titles with Central Zone/Central Manawa. In 2021 she won a ...

(born 2001) –

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

player; has represented

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); ...

internationally. * Beverley Wakem (born 1944) – Former Chief Ombudsman, president of the

International Ombudsman Institute The International Ombudsman Institute (IOI), established in 1978, is the only global organisation for the cooperation of more than 200 independent Ombudsman institutions operating on a local, regional and national level from more than 100 countr ...

and chief executive of Radio New Zealand. * Therese Walsh (born 1971) – chief executive and business leader; chief operating officer for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and head of the organising body for the

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by A ...

. * Joy Watson (née Evans) (1938–2021) – author of children's books. *

Fran Wilde Dame Frances Helen Wilde (née Kitching, born 11 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician, and former Wellington Labour member of parliament, Minister of Tourism and Mayor of Wellington. She was the first woman to serve as Mayor of Welling ...

(born 1948) – New Zealand politician, and former Wellington

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

member of parliament,

Minister of Tourism The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many different countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) * Minist ...

and first female Mayor of Wellington.

References

References/Sources

* Lillian G. Keys, ''Philip Viard, Bishop of Wellington'', Pegasus Press, Christchurch, 1968. * Ernest Richard Simmons, ''Brief history of the Catholic Church in New Zealand'', Catholic Publications Centre, Auckland, 1978. * Michael King, ''God's farthest outpost : a history of Catholics in New Zealand'', Viking, Auckland 1997. * Mary de Porres Flannigan R.S.M., ''Mercy comes to Wellington : a history of St. Mary’s College'', St. Mary’s College Board of Trustees, Wellington, 2000. * Michael O'Meeghan S.M., ''Steadfast in hope : the story of the Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington 1850–2000'', Dunmore press, Palmerston North, 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's College, Wellington Educational institutions established in 1850 Girls' schools in New Zealand Catholic secondary schools in the Wellington Region Schools in Wellington City Sisters of Mercy schools 1850 establishments in New Zealand NZHPT Category II listings in the Wellington Region Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington

History

Buildings

Characteristics

See also

Notable alumnae

References

References/Sources