Our History

There used to be two schools on the current school site, Holy Cross and Marist Miramar.

Holy Cross School was run by the Sisters of Mercy and started in 1930 (St Columbans Hall) but was officially opened in 1932 . The original buildings are no longer here but parts of those buildings were used to make the crosses that are now on the new buildings.

The classrooms that now house the Senior Block made up the school that was known as Marist Miramar, and this started in February 1941. This school was run by the Marist Brothers and was for boys, from Years 5-8.

The founder of the Marist Brothers was Marcellin Champagnat and the founder of the Mercy Sisters was Catherine McAuley.

In 1983 the two schools, Marist Miramar and Holy Cross Miramar got put together and became Marist Holy Cross. In 1989 the school became known as Holy Cross.

In the late 1990s the school community raised money and built the Paul Reddish Hall, on Miramar Avenue.

In 2009 our new administration block, Te Rotokura was opened. Our school has been called Holy Cross- te Rotokura, since the 1980s but our past principal Mrs Dromgool named this specific block, Te Rotokura for the following reason:
The first Maori to occupy Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington Harbour and area) lived on the island of Motukairangi, now Miramar Peninsula. There was a lagoon known as Te Rotokura, translation of this is: the red lake and this was because of the red coloured reeds on the lagoon but for our school this is also significant because the word kura when used as a verb means to be educated and when used as a noun is school. Our school is almost exactly on the site of this lagoon.

Sophia, Year 5