St Joseph’s marks anniversary

EXACTLY 140 years after it opened, Queenstown’s oldest school has almost exactly the same number of young charges.

St Joseph’s School was founded by the Dominican sisters, who arrived from Ireland to teach in Queenstown in 1883.

Perhaps remarkably, given Queenstown’s exponential growth, the school’s still on the same site, and now boasts 143 pupils, about 30 shy of its maximum capacity.

Principal Alan Grant said there was still ‘‘a little bit of room to grow where we are’’, and while there had been talk for a long time about where the best place for the school was, ‘‘we love where we are’’.

Included among those who gathered at the school on Tuesday to celebrate its birthday were two generations of one family with a 99year connection to the school.

Marney Inder (nee O’Connell), 91, started at the school in 1937, while her late husband Les also attended, though he was five years ahead of her.

Four older members of his family had also been educated at St Joseph’s.

Marney went on to attend St Dominic’s in Dunedin and, after high school, went to teacher’s college before returning to Queenstown, where she did some relief teaching at her old school.

Her sister, Phil O’ConnellCooper, also became a teacher and ended up as principal of the school — in 2008, Marney’s daughter Trisch Inder, who also attended St Jo’s, was appointed deputy principal to her aunt.

The following year Trisch was appointed principal, a position she stayed in till she retired in 2021.

Trisch said the 140th celebrations allowed them to remember many of the people who played a huge part in the school’s history, who were no longer present.

They included Paddy Burton, ‘‘a very loved teacher’’ who started teaching at St Jo’s about 1990, who was killed by her son in 2001 at her Queenstown home.

Along with a memorial on the school grounds, each year the school presented the Paddy Burton Award.

‘‘It’s for the kid who’s not necessarily [gifted] but a good, solid, beautiful kid who’s kind and does the best they can.

‘‘That’s one way her story lives on here at the school,’’ Trisch said.

Let them eat cake . . . Cutting the cake are Robbie Apolosi, 5, who is at least the fourth generation in his family to attend the school, and Marney Inder, 91, who attended the school in 1937.

PHOTOS: RHYVA VAN ONSELEN Many happy returns . . . Presentday pupils, current and former teachers and parishioners celebrate Queenstown’s St Joseph’s School’s 140th birthday on Tuesday.