The brand new St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College is about to open.
From term one next year, Auckland’s new $80 million St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College will provide an education to hundreds of pupils.
In July 2022, the Establishment Board of Trustees of St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College announced that Dean Wearmouth will be the foundation principal of the college.
Wearmouth, the former principal at Marcellin College, took up his position in term 4, 2022.
A recent fly-over video shows most of the scaffolding is off the three-level buildings. The red brick (interspersed with ‘flashes of black’} construction is arranged in an L-shape, with yet-to-be-completed landscaping still in the pipeline.
Other yet-to-be-completed tasks include internal fit-outs. Distinctive window placements and two prefabs are at the site where Savory Construction started last September after months of earthworks were completed.
Jesuit school
The Auckland Catholic Diocese says the new diocesan school will be run in the Jesuit tradition.
Australian Jesuits say at first St Ignatius of Loyola will cater for 340 students. They’re expecting the roll to grow progressively to 900 by 2030.
“Enrolment applications for the college have now closed as we have reached our maximum intake, demonstrating the strong demand we foreshadowed for Catholic education in this growing southern precinct” the Diocese’s 2022 annual report says.
St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College owes its existence to a generous donation from late Māngere multimillionaire Howard Plumley.
Besides the Plumley Endowment, the remaining school construction funds have come from “a mixture of debt, land sales and donations”.
The Diocese says the final construction costs for the new school are subject to the timing of future stages and design and commercial negotiations over the coming years.
It is assumed that the costs will be in the range of $70m to $80m.
Howard Plumley
Plumley had no children and died in 2016 aged 91.
He lived in the same modest Māngere house for at least 60 years. His will bequeathed most of his $122m to the Catholic Diocese of Auckland.
His donation is thought to be New Zealand’s biggest-ever gift from a private individual.
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