From the Principal

The Campaign for Marian College begins today on 25th March, the day the Church celebrates the Annunciation and the day on which our college was founded in 1982, 40 years ago today. Marian College is a Catholic school which empowers our students to be confident, committed, faith filled learners who will contribute to the common good of society.

Marian College’s new campus is being constructed throughout 2022 and we are very excited to be planning our move to our new home in mid 2023. The whole project is costing in excess of $50 million (including the site land cost). This is significantly above the insurance proceeds received from our old site. The Catholic Diocese of Christchurch is enabling our new Campus to become a reality, along with commitments made by Marian College community towards our exciting future school.

The College is working alongside Archbishop Paul Martin and the Diocese, to make our Marian education possible for our students.  We are grateful to our parent community and whānau who have already begun supporting this project with an annual building contribution. The Campaign has the full support of our Principal and her Senior Leadership Team, the College Board of Trustees, the Marian Foundation and the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch. Kathy Seaward has agreed to Chair the Fundraising Committee and members will include Mary-Lou Davidson, Carmel Gregan-Ford along with parents Jerome Toomey, Tim Wayman and previous staff member Viv Straight. 

Together we are aiming to raise $4 million of the more than $50 million which our campus will cost and seeking your support during 2022-2023. The fantastic news is that the Marian Foundation has already generously gifted 25% towards our overall target. We thank them most sincerely for their gift of $1 million towards our new campus, towards our campaign, and most especially, towards the education of our students.

The fundraising will be focused on six key aspects of our new campus. We will be seeking gifts towards the Chapel, the Library, the Gymnasium and covered sports courts, the Arts (textiles and technology), the Sciences, and the Performing Arts. In addition, and beyond the initial build commitment and the campaign target of $4 million, we also hope to provide a Whare as soon as possible for our students, whānau and the wider community, and gifts towards this project will also be most welcome. Those who would prefer to make a general gift towards the new campus will also be most welcome to do so.

Marian College was gifted  the name Māhutonga by the Ngai Tūāhuriri Education Committee. The Southern Cross is important to Māori as these stars guided their ancestors across the ocean to Aotearoa. The choice of this beautiful name reflects the journey of Marian College from our founding schools of St Mary’s College and McKillop College to our new home in Papanui. The Sisters of Mercy journeyed from Ireland and the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart journeyed across the Tasman to New Zealand. In more recent times Marian College has journeyed due to the impact of the 2011 earthquake. We are excited to complete this journey now, to our stunning new school where we join the North Parish, our brother school St Bede’s College and St Joseph’s Papanui.  A beautiful visual symbol of the journey will be the star pattern on the roof of the new chapel, representing the constellation from the night sky of 25th March 1982, the opening day of Marian. Marian gratefully thanks the Te Rūnanga of Ngāi Tūāhiriri for their support of our new school.

Please do not be surprised if little seems to be happening in the campaign during the next few months – much will be done quietly, out of sight, apart from an occasional progress report as we go along – but we do want you to know of our plans as we prepare to play our part in making an exciting future for Marian College.

Everyone will have the opportunity to contribute to the campaign as we move forward. You will find more background and details of our projects outlined below. If you have specific questions or are interested in becoming involved in some way, or want to make an early contribution to one of our projects, please do contact our Campaign Manager Adam Sutcliffe on 0220935190 or asutcliffe@cdoc.nz

Tātou ko Mere e whakapono ana
With Mary in faith

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Campaign Executive:

Campaign Committee Chair: Kathy Seaward

Principal: Mary-Lou Davidson

Presiding Chair of College Board of Trustees: Carmel Gregan-Ford 

Chair of Marian Foundation: Warren Glassey

Campaign Manager: Adam Sutcliffe​​​​​​​