Villa Maria College () is a single-sex secondary school in
Christchurch
Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...
, New Zealand. It was opened on 18 February 1918 with 14 pupils. It was founded by the
Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...
and served as a parish school when boys were admitted in 1921. From 1941 the school reverted to being a girls' college. Villa Maria College is a day school but it also had boarders between 1935 and 1979. In 1981, the college was
integrated into the New Zealand state school system under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 but its proprietors remain the Sisters of Mercy (through the Sisters of Mercy Trust Board).
Honour
In the
2001 Birthday Honours, former principal Sister Pauline Margaret O'Regan was made a Distinguished Companion of the
New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit () is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant (document), royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of New Zealand, Queen of New Zealand, "for th ...
(DCNZM). She had left the school and the convent in 1973 to work within Christchurch's poorer communities.
Enrolment
As of , Villa Maria has a roll of students, of which (%) identify as Māori.
As of , the school has an
Equity Index
In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calculate market perform ...
of , placing it amongst schools whose students have socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to deciles 8 and 9 under the former
socio-economic decile
In the education in New Zealand, New Zealand education system, decile was a key measure of socioeconomic status used to target funding and support schools. In academic contexts the full term "socioeconomic decile" or "socioeconomic decile band" wa ...
system).
Notable alumnae
*
Jessie Anderson (born 1998), field hockey player
*
Ellen Halpenny (born 1990), netball player
*
Courtney McGregor (born 1998), representative female artistic gymnast
*
Grace Prendergast (born 1992), rower
*
Jan Tinetti (born 1968), cabinet member of the Labour Party
Notes
References
* ''Villa Maria College golden jubilee, 1918–1968'' Christchurch, 1968.
* Mary Declan Burke RSM, ''Mercy through the years : the centennial history of the Sisters of Mercy, Christchurch Diocese, 1878–1978'', Sisters of Mercy Trust Board, Christchurch, 1978.
* Michael O'Meeghan S.M., ''Held firm by faith : a history of the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, 1840–1987'', Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, Christchurch, 1988.
* ''Villa Maria College, seventy-five years, 1918–1993'', Villa Maria College, Christchurch, 1993.
* Michael King, ''God's farthest outpost : a history of Catholics in New Zealand'', Viking, Auckland 1997.
{{Schools in Canterbury
Educational institutions established in 1918
Secondary schools in Christchurch
Girls' schools in New Zealand
Catholic secondary schools in Christchurch
Sisters of Mercy schools
1918 establishments in New Zealand