National Network of Marist Schools

The National Network of Marist schools is a charitable organisation designed to maintain and enhance the Marist nature of the schools members of the Society of Mary used to staff. It aims to associate like-minded Marist schools in order that through education, people may more effectively engage people in live the Gospel in a Marian way.

Schools in New Zealand without Marist Priests and Brothers, and with lay people wanting to keep the Marist Spirit alive in their schools, signals a new beginning for Marist education in New Zealand. The concept for the Marist Network of Marist Schools (NNMS) came from three principals of Marist schools, who wanted to keep alive what is special about Marist schools and Marist education. The NNMS is seen as a contemporary realisation of the aspiration of the first Marists who on 23 July 1816, pledged themselves to form a Marist Society at the shrine of Notre Dame du Fourviere, France.

The expression of the Marist Spirit in education always takes on a local dimension, however the Marist Spirit in education is not solely unique to an individual school, and while the expression of the Marist Spirit in education takes on a local dimension, the National Network of Marist Schools seeks to provide a backbone and structure upon which the Marist Spirit in education can not only be preserved, but develop.

A new organisation NNMS is currently seeking to:

• clarify the vision of the Network with a strategic plan that that directs the growth and energy of the NNMS, and focuses them on sustainability and independence
• set in place a policy that ensures all schools can be equitably serviced
• suggest ways of developing the finances of teh Network so it can become financially independent.

In the current year, the NNMS has contracted the JC Colin project to deliver:

• two Forums each for principals, Board Chairs
• a forum for teachers new to Marist schools
• a forum on liturgy and music
• a course on “Growing Directors of Religious Education
• a leadership programme, Marist Youth Leader, for senior students in Marist schools.

The aim of NNMS is to associate like-minded schools so that they may more effectively promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ through school education and in the Marist way. NNMS seeks to be one contemporary realisation of the aspirations of the first Marists who pledged themselves to form a Marist society at the shrine of Notre Dame de Fourviere, France, on 23rd July 1816.