In 2010, St Joseph’s Church was seriously damaged by the Christchurch earthquakes. The earthquake also put in doubt the future of a number of school buildings such as the school hall and classroom block. Due to the uncertainty in many of the older school buildings maintenance work has also been repeatedly delayed. This was further complicated by successive Bishop appointments and uncertainty relating to the rebuilding of the parish Church. As a result, the school has been operating in classrooms well past their due-by-date.

Although it could be perceived that change has been slow, the reality is that since the earthquake, the diocese has built three new classroom blocks to replace classrooms no longer in use within the hall building. Over the last three years, discussion regarding the future of St Joseph’s School has intensified with ongoing work investigating the design of a new parish complex and the relocation of Marian college.

This year the Diocese agreed to allocate funding provided by the Ministry of Education to the reconfiguration and modernisation of the Mercy block. This work involved turning the old changing rooms out the back of Mercy 1-2 into a third classroom and refurbishing the Mercy classrooms so that they mirrored the configuration of the McAuley and Hanrahan classrooms.

The Diocese has also announced that it is likely that four new classrooms are likely to be constructed in the future to replace the classrooms removed with the demolition of the Timoney and Ashby classroom blocks. The Timoney and Ashby blocks have been earmarked for demolition to make way for an expansion of the parish car park and at some point in the distant future the construction of a new hall. 

We look forward to further development on our school site. The school board will keep you updated as future plans materialise.