Not long after a Church was built for the people in Bryndwr, the Bishop decided to build a school.

On 6 February 1951, Sister Angela and St Catherine opened St Patrick’s School.

On the first day of school there were 56 students. Although the school was opened, the new classrooms were not ready and so the Sisters had to teach the children in a room in the priest’s presbytery.

It was not long until the new classrooms were ready, and the sisters were excited to be able to begin teaching in the real classrooms.

The Sisters who taught at St Patricks lived at Loreto Convent, and they had to walk to St Patrick’s every day.

As more and more students arrived at the school, the classes became very big – in some classes there were up to 60 students! So over time, new classrooms had to be built.

Bishop Joyce had asked the Sisters of Jesus and Mary to set up a community in Christchurch to work with families and to help teach in Catholic schools.

So in 1961, some Sisters of Jesus and Mary arrived at St Patricks to take over teaching those students.

www.stpatricks.school.nz