MM 50 Years Ago

St Bede’s 60th Year

St Bede’s College, Christchurch, c. 1970

St Bede’s was not the first secondary school founded by the Society of Mary in the South Island. Others – Fr Garin’s at Nelson, Fr Rolland’s at Ahaura and Fr Ginaty’s St Leo’s Academy in Christchurch – had brief lives in earlier times, but St Bede’s has gone from strength to strength since its origins in 1911.

It opened as St Bede’s Collegiate School in Ferry Road with 14 day boys. When it transferred to its present site in 1920 and became a boarding school, its roll had reached 92. At the time of its golden jubilee in 1961, it had
grown to become the largest private secondary school in the country with 670 boys. Though its intake is now restricted, pupils number over 700.

In its life of 60 years, St Bede’s has built up through its rectors and teachers – priests, brothers, laymen and women – a fine reputation among NZ schools.

November 1971