Marian College, Christchurch

Marian College, Christchurch was founded in 1982 with the merging of two Catholic secondary schools for girls, St Mary's College (Sisters of Mercy, established in Colombo Street in 1893) and McKillop College (named for Mary MacKillop (St Mary of the Cross)) located in Shirley (founded in 1949 by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart). Both schools provided boarding and day facilities.[3]

Marian College
Address
122 Barbadoes St, Christchurch, New Zealand
Coordinates	43.5115°S 172.6630°E / -43.5115; 172.6630
Information
Type	Integrated secondary (year 9–13) single sex, girls
Motto	"With Mary in Faith"
Established	1982; 39 years ago
Ministry of Education Institution no.	343
School roll	407[1] (March 2020)
Socio-economic decile	8P[2]
Website	www.mariancollege.school.nz

It was decided to merge these schools into a larger Catholic secondary day school for girls which would be an integrated school under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975 and to develop it on the McKillop College site in North Parade. The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch is the proprietor of the college.

Marian College was officially opened on 25 March 1982, the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord.[3] The first principal was Sister Eleanor Capper RSJ who left in 1996.[4] In the subsequent 30 years, Marian College extended its facilities to include an assembly hall/gymnasium, a music suite, library, technology rooms’ and new classrooms. The oldest building was the administration block, which was built in 1914 by a Doctor Louisson and used as a family residence, until it was sold to the Sisters of St Joseph in 1949.[3]

Because of the effects of the 2010 Canterbury earthquake and the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the school was relocated for the 2011 school year to St Bede's College, Christchurch and there was also some cooperation with Shirley Boys' High School which is near the school. As a result of the February earthquake and the June 2011 Christchurch earthquake significant liquefaction occurred on the College site resulting in most buildings suffering differential settlement in many areas of up to 215mm. It was therefore decided to relocate the school to the site of Catholic Cathedral College (where there was sufficient surplus capacity to accommodate the school) at 122 Barbadoes Street at the beginning of the 2012 school year for a period expected to be between two and four years.[5] On 15 March 2019, Marian College announced the site for a new location on Lydia Street in Northcote, to be opened in 2023.[6]