St Peter Chanel School was presented with a pounamu to mark its 70th anniversary by the family of Genny Hanning — who had been a principal of the school in the 1980s.
Her husband, Tony Hanning, said the stone was a way to connect the present and future generations of pupils at the school to its past.
He said the memories pupils had of the school and the past would become tangible through the pounamu.
"It’s like a guiding rock or beacon in that sense."
Mr Hanning’s sons brought the stone back with them from a trip to Lake Wakatipu.
One of the founding pupils, Donna Peacock, 79, said it was lovely to see the families and the children at the school yesterday.
She said Sr Celine Walshe, who had taught her in standards 3 to 6, would make sandwiches and a big urn of cocoa for all the pupils because there was a lot of poverty and not everyone had food for lunch.
Sr Walshe also made the girls beautiful Irish creme veils for their first Holy Communion.
Back then Catholic schools were not state-integrated and pupils had to maintain the school grounds themselves.
The boys cleaned the toilets and the girls cleaned the classrooms and windows and polished the floors.
She said the work taught them a lot of skills as well.
