Home

Term Dates 2025

Striving for Excellence in the Marist Tradition

Saint Mary's Catholic School History

Our Catholic School was formed by the Marist Sisters and was opened on the 2nd of February 1944. The school was built by a local farmer and the parish men. Most of the materials for the school were donated by local farmers. There were only 3 teachers, 3 classrooms and only 38 students. Up until 1959 all the teachers were nuns. The teachers that joined after that were lay teachers. Our principal became a lay teacher in 1991. The school pool first opened in 1974 at the annual school gala day. All the money was fund raised for and the pool took ten weeks to build.
Our Beliefs:
Our school believes in the Marist tradition as we strive for excellence. As a Catholic School we believe in the Holy Bible and follow the Ten Commandments. We believe in the one and only God, the creator of all things big and small. As St. Mary's Catholic School, we follow in the footsteps of Mary.

What's happening at St Mary's Catholic School Putaruru?

Upcoming Events in October

Wed 22

Amazing Race

22 Oct 2025

Thu 23

Teacher Strike – school closed

23 Oct 2025

Fri 31

School Mass – All Saints & Souls (time to be confirmed)

31 Oct 2025

Latest Notices

NZEI Te Riu Roa Union Members Stike Notification - 23 October

21 Oct 2025

Kia Ora St Mary's School parents & caregivers

We have received formal notification that NZEI Te Riu Roa Union Members will be taking strike action from 7:00am to 7:00pm on Thursday 23rd October 2025.

Our school will be closed for instruction on that day so please make arrangements for the care and supervision of your children for that day.

Thank you for supporting our teachers & support staff.

Sports Team Photos

21 Oct 2025

TEAM photos have now been uploaded to the Photolife website and are ready to be viewed and ordered.

Codes will be sent via email throughout the day. As this is a new system, please check your junk, spam, or promotions folders, in case the message was filtered.

Please note: Free delivery is available for all orders placed before MIDNIGHT ON SUNDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2025.

For reference, the master list of Key Codes for our school is with the office. This can be used if you do not get a code.

Photolife are sending out keycodes before proofing as this cuts down parent waiting time on orders being delivered to school.

Photolife are currently matching the student’s names to their team photos, and this will be checked by the school to ensure everything is correct. Photolife will not print any orders or photos until they have the school’s approval that everything is correct and OK to go ahead.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

For parent enquiries:
???? enquiries@photolife.co.nz

Whanau Meeting

13 Oct 2025

Good morning

Just to let everyone know - the Whanau Meeting will be on Monday 20th October at 3:15 in the staffroom - all welcome