Our School

Our Lady of the Snows is a fully integrated Catholic Primary School conveniently located at 20 Main Street in Methven for pupils from New Entrant to Year 8.

The school’s curriculum reflects our special Catholic character as we prepare our children with an education within a caring environment where everyone shares and lives the values, teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church.

The school is divided into two classes covering New Entrant – Year 2 in Totara - Room 2 and Years 3-8 in Kauri - Room 1. We also have a Multipurpose room where we hold Assembly, Whole school prayer, meetings and it can also be set up as an art and music room.

All classrooms and students at Our Lady of the Snows are individually equipped with Digital Technology. Room 1 students are supplied with 1:1 Chromebook Laptops for classroom use, and in Room 2, the Junior students have access to 1:1 iPads, which are used in the Literacy and Mathematics programmes.

Extra group support and teaching is provided by our qualified teacher aides and volunteers, and all pupils have access to the schools learning support facilities.

At Our Lady of the Snows we are extremely proud of our fully equipped, newly refurbished Mercy library, a teacher aide room, large spacious grounds with a playground, two tennis courts, a scooter area, volleyball court, full size soccer and rugby pitches and many trees and gardens.

The school encourages all pupils and families to be actively part of our Catholic community. We begin each day in class with class prayers. School Mass is held at least once each term, and we have regular prayer liturgies during our fortnightly assembly, where we encourage parents and friends of OLS to attend both assembly and School Mass.

Our Lady of the Snows staff are focused on delivering the National Curriculum with a strong emphasis on literacy and numeracy integrated into diverse learning experiences that draw on our unique community and environment. The school values programme and religious education are delivered in an integrated approach with the rest of the curriculum.

Fitness and sporting activities in our programme include: golf, athletics, swimming, football, rugby, tennis, netball and our weekly skiing programme during the third term. We also value the creative side of the curriculum. Art, Music and Drama are an important part of learning. Our Lady of the Snows provides education through the Arts during whole school Kapa Haka, inquiry learning time and within the religious education programme. In addition to this music lessons are available during school hours via a private teacher, when requested.

We believe the well-being, health and safety and progress of our students is integral to developing a child who is a lifelong learner, and we work hard to help them along their learning journey.

Grounds and Facilities

Our Lady of the Snows is located in three hectares of attractive grounds, featuring two full-size tennis courts inside a full netting enclosure. These courts double as netball and basketball courts for the winter months.

Our huge playing field features a full-size soccer pitch with netted posts and a full-size rugby field. The field is surrounded by attractive trees and hedges and we have access to the Methven community pool, which lies only a short walk away across the soccer pitch. We are extremely lucky to have a large adventure playground and a covered sandpit next to our open hard surface playing area.

Our gardens around the school are planted with a variety of native and exotic plants and trees.

The school is located across the car park from Our Lady of the Snows Church and the school uses the church regularly for school prayer, school Mass and other significant Catholic celebrations.