Aquinas College is a Year 7-13 integrated co-educational Catholic College. We opened in January 2003 for Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 students. Our school now has 750 students (maximum roll). The College was not founded by a religious order like many Catholic schools in New Zealand. Instead, it was established by the Catholic community of Tauranga, with the support of Bishop Dennis Browne, to provide a quality Catholic education pathway for the young people in our community.
The College is named after St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), the patron saint of students and Catholic schools. He was born into an aristocratic family but committed himself to a life of prayer, study, research and action in the Dominican order. He is perhaps the greatest of the Doctors of the Church, gaining a strong reputation for his ability to reconcile faith, reason and science. St. Thomas Aquinas was always a man of God – in prayer, his love of the Mass and the Eucharist, his search for Truth, and his generosity to others. St. Thomas Aquinas serves as an excellent role model for our students – he was a man of the heart and humility and a great servant to his community.
St. Thomas Aquinas is also historically connected to Tauranga Moana. On March 7, 1840, when Bishop Pompallier first arrived on the harbour foreshore, he dedicated the Catholic Mission in Tauranga to St. Thomas Aquinas.
