St Brendan's School

Welcome to our school.  You will find St Brendan’s Catholic School challenges students to be the best that they can be, whilst walking hand in hand with Christ.

We are very familiar with the whakatauki, ‘he waka eke noa’. Pope Francis used this during the Urbi and Orbi blessing on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica in March 2020 while New Zealand was in lockdown.  “We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile … but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together … only together can we do this”.  We were called to row together, through the calm, the storms and the uncertainty.  Together we took strength from our faith, we held onto hope and we kept connected with our school community during a very challenging time.

We are blessed to have an amazing group of professionals at St Brendan’s.  Monday, 23 March 2020 will remain a memorable date.  Our team pulled together all of our preparation, ‘turned on a dime’ and gave 110% to remain connected with our students and families.  Monday, 18 May was also memorable, the date from which we were able to catch up – not with the focus on what we had missed out on, but what we had been missing.  We were very grateful for our community’s ongoing support during these extraordinary times.

St Brendan’s has a dimension apart from other schools that is referred to as the “Special Character”. This Special Character is the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, and it is the mission of this school to nurture the children in our care intellectually, physically and spiritually through the love of Jesus Christ.

As our Mission Statement proclaims, it is our aim to challenge our students to achieve academic success, spiritual awareness and positive citizenship within a supportive Catholic environment. The Board of Trustees, staff and community of St Brendan’s remains committed to the principles of this mission, our stated values and beliefs and welcomes all who share this commitment to join our community.

2020 Catholic Special Character Report

On behalf of our St Brendan’s team, I welcome you and your family to our community.  We look forward to rowing collaboratively with you during your family’s journey.

Haere mai, haere mai, nau mai haere mai! Tena koutou katoa!

God bless,

Veronica Sawers

Principal