Sacred Heart College, Napier 3.74

Sacred Heart College, Napier is a state-integrated Catholic girls' secondary school located in Napier, New Zealand.It was founded on its present site in 1867 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. For the first one hundred years of its existence, the College was staffed predominantly by the Sisters of the Missions. Sister Mary Rose who completed her term in 1998 was the last Mission Sister to hold the position of Principal. The original buildings withstood the 1931 Napier earthquake. Sacred Heart was a private school until 1982, when it along with all other Catholic schools in New Zealand integrated into the state education system.During the 1990s new buildings were erected and existing ones upgraded. The new Barbier and Marian blocks were blessed and opened, and Ross and Dennehy blocks were updated and rededicated. On June 30, 2001 the convent building, the chapel and a section of the hostel were destroyed by fire. These have now been, or are in the process of being, replaced. The latest addition is the full-sized gymnasium named after Sister Mary Rose Holderness.The boarding hostel attached to the college, which had accommodation for some seventy five girls, was closed in April 2010 Both the College and the hostel are administered on behalf of the Sisters by the Mission College Napier Trust Board and the Hostel Management Committee. The Board of Trustees administers government funds and governs the school.EnrolmentAs a state-integrated Catholic school in the Palmerston North diocese, Sacred Heart has a preferential enrolment scheme. In general, preferential enrolment is given to students who are baptised Catholic, or who has a baptised Catholic parent or sibling; a signed letter from the priest of the student's or their parent's parish is required to confirm preferential enrolment. The school is permitted to enrol a limited number of non-preferential (i.e. non-Catholic) students, but these students must not exceed 5% of the school's roll.