Marian College

Life at Marian

Marian College is fortunate in being able to remain small with a friendly, family atmosphere which comes from teachers and students knowing each other well. Every student at Marian is nurtured and her skills and talents fostered. Students have every opportunity to contribute through participation, service and leadership.

Our school culture is based on traditional values and expectations and Marian is also focused on supporting future-oriented teaching and learning. Marian College is committed to preparing students with the skills they need for the real world environment. Marian uses information technology for blended inquiry based learning and we use google applications extensively.

Marian girls are involved with service to the community. Staff strive to create a positive climate, which is conducive to effective learning with the development of personal responsibility, using collaboration, problem solving and encouraging students to be critical thinker

Click the sections below to find out more about school life at Marian.

Special Character

Sport

Culture

Music and Performing Arts

Drama

All year 9 students have a term in Drama, focused on building the foundation for acting skills in improv, devising, and scriptwork. From year 10 onwards, students are exposed to a range of theatre forms, such as clowning, Commedia dell'Arte, mime, melodrama and shadow theatre, as well as exploring script work and having opportunities to create and write their own performances.

Year 10-13 are given the opportunity to go and watch live productions with their classmates, and we have often invited a variety of experts such as stage practitioners and make-up designers to come and work on unique skills with our students.

Outside the classroom, all students can join our junior and senior Theatresports teams, which compete against other schools in terms 3 and 4. This can also be a casual opt in to learn new games, skills and meet others.

With the move to our new school and new facilities, we will be reintroducing school productions where students can join in as actors, singers, dancers, as well as opportunities to participate behind the scenes in costumes, sets, props and technology.

Learning Support

Student Leadership

Whānau Groups

Whānau

Whānau, formerly known as House Groups and Wā Whānau or 'Family Time' play an important role in ensuring students feel connected to the school, their peers and their teachers.

There are four Whānau at Marian College:

Brodie (Blue/Kikorangi) is named after one of the early Bishops of Christchurch.

Deans (Green/Kakariki) is named after an early Canterbury family with their historical family home at Deans Bush in Canterbury.

Seymour (Yellow/Kowhai) is named after one of the first four ships to bring settlers to Canterbury, the “Sir George Seymour”

Takahe (Red/Whero) is named after a native bird which used to roam freely on the Canterbury Plains.

There is a wide variety of inter-Whānau events held regularly throughout the year, most notably swimming and athletics sports, and house singing on Feast Day.

Within each Whānau, there are six Wā Whānau groups of 16-18 students from all year levels and one staff member. Wā Whānau meet several times a week and this creates a close and friendly atmosphere of Marian College students of different ages, enabling seniors to look after juniors and ensuring new students have a sense of belonging.