Within the Hamilton Diocese there are twenty nine primary schools, five* secondary schools and three Catholic preschools.

Across all the above mentioned Catholic schools, there are approximately 9500 students with up to another 100 young children in our preschools.

Diocesan entity, Jubilee Early Childhood Limited runs the three preschools, those being Stella Maris in Gisborne, Jubilee Early Childhood in Hamilton East and Our Place Catholic preschool in Frankton.  

There has been some movement in Principals this year with new appointees at St Pius X School in Melville, Bishop Edward Gaines School in Tokoroa, St Patrick’s School in Taumarunui and St Joseph’s School in Matamata. St Peter's Catholic School in Cambridge has appointed a new principal, Mrs Nicole Higby, to start at the beginning of 2025. St Thomas More in Mt Maunganui are currently seeking a principal to start at the beginning of term 2 2025.

The new Religious Education curriculum, Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith, approved by the New Zealand Bishops Conference, is being rolled out across all Year levels over the next three years. Currently the resources to support the programme are available for students in Years 1 to 4 and those in Years 9 to 11. 

The new curriculum presents a coherent and seamless religious education for students in years 1 - 13 and has been welcomed enthusiastically by teachers.  

The introduction to Tō Tātou Whakapono Our Faith states;

“Teaching Religious Education is hard but sacred work, especially in the face of growing secularism and increasing demands on teachers’ time in terms of compliance and professional expectations.” 

Schools have been exploring the new curriculum and the associated resources to reach a point of readiness to implement the curriculum in their schools. Across the diocese support has been given to schools at meetings for Principals and Directors of Religious Education, cluster meetings for teachers and individual school staff meetings. Bishop Richard has written to all school boards asking them to make the growth in faith knowledge of teachers a priority. 

Looking forward to next year, the annual commissioning Masses for those working in our schools, attending our schools or active within the school community will be held in February, all are welcome.

The Masses will be in:

Gisborne on Thursday 13 February at 3.15 p.m;

Hamilton at the Cathedral on Tuesday 25 February at 6 p.m;

Rotorua at St Mary’s on Thursday 27 February at 6 p.m.

*Sacred Heart Girls College, while counted in the five secondary Colleges, is not a Diocesan school and has the Mission Trust Board as its Proprietor, not the Bishop.