House Team System
The School is divided into four house teams for the purpose of sports and other activities. The teams are Pierce (Blue), Quinlan (Gold), Keegan (Green) and Lison (Red). The children are placed in a house on enrolment. All members of the same family are placed in the same house.
The House Captains and Vice Captains are elected by the school children every two terms from the Year 6 children.
The House Teams operate to strengthen a sense of unity and cohesion within the School, to add purpose to sporting and other school activities, and to provide an incentive and reward system for behaviour management and recognition of effort, achievement and school spirit.
All children earn housepoints which are collated weekly and the results announced at assembly. A running total is kept to find the winning House each term, and for the year.
Pierce
On 8th June, 1949, the Parish of East Coast Bays was established in Browns Bay and Father John Pierce was appointed as the first Parish Priest. He could see that the parish was growing so helped buy the land and build the school where it is today knowing that the area, although farmland then, would become very popular. He was loved and respected by all members of the community and worked hard building the school and developing the grounds.
Quinlan
Sister Hyacinth Quinlan worked closely with Father Julian Tennison Woods and the Diocesan Sisters of St Joseph in Australia. She was a teacher and trained new sisters as teachers to carry on the work that Mary MacKillop had started. She became a leader known for her compassionate care for others. In 1880 she led three other sisters to New Zealand, founding the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth in Aotearoa.
Keegan
Sister Rose Keegan was a teacher and the first Principal of our school. In 1961 Sr Rose led a group of four sisters to begin the first ‘Black Josephite’ school in the Auckland Diocese at Mairangi Bay, St John’s. She had considerable ability as a pianist and singer and she was qualified to teach both music and speech, which she did throughout her life. She had the ability to identify the needy in her area and provide help.
Liston
Liston was the Archbishop of Auckland. He wanted all Catholic families to be able to go to Catholic schools if they wanted. He always fought for what he believed in and worked hard to make things happen once a decision was made. There was no Catholic school in the East Coast Bays so he invited the Sisters of St Joseph of Nazareth to establish their first house in the Auckland Diocese and to staff the school. Our school was opened and blessed by him on 1 February 1961 with a roll of 124 children.