Principal's Message

Tēnā koutou St Ignatius community,

The faith of the Catholic Church is Sacramental. The Sacraments of our faith are rituals in life that we can make that hold a far deeper spiritual meaning than the outward actions, such as Baptism and Marriage. This week, we were delighted to organise the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time for many of our students. We welcomed Priests from around the Auckland Catholic Diocese to hear the confessions of our young people and for the students to receive the forgiveness of Christ through the Priests. It was a truly spiritual event and a privilege for our school community that so many Priests were able to attend, we are very grateful.

This week we also held our first talent quest, 'St Ignatius' Got Talent'. The event was such a great reminder of what an holistic education provides for young people. It was an opportunity for students who are passionate about the arts to showcase their talents and also have a go in a competition with a large audience. With our focus on commitment to our community through student leadership in liturgies, co-curricular activities and House activities and competitions, it was easy to see the confidence that has grown in all of the students who performed.

It is through the approach of an holistic education, honouring the many gifts, talents and passions of students, real confidence can begin to grow in all. Real confidence is confidence that can be applied to new situations and this was an excellent example. When students are finding out more and more about themselves and growing in real confidence then they begin to become truly excellent in who they have been created by God to be. They begin to learn how they can go out into the wider world, how they can make a difference and how they can be the example for others; they begin to learn how they might become the greater glory of God.

Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

Dean Wearmouth

College Life

St Ignatius’ Got Talent!

On Wednesday, St Ignatius held its inaugural "St Ignatius' Got Talent" event, showcasing an incredible array of talent from our ākonga. The night was packed with diverse performances, from singing and dancing to a polished rendition of "Revolting Children" by the Musical Theatre elective, ensuring entertainment for the entire audience.
Our celebrity judges, award winning musician Paige Tapara and Head of Arts teacher from Tuakau College, Ms Jess Matthews, were impressed at the showmanship, courage and talent of all ākonga who put themselves out there to perform in front of the large crowd.

Although all ākonga were winners in our eyes the final judges results were:

1st Place -   Rupert Archer - Cello
2nd Place - Maddison Briones - Dance
3rd Place -  Norma Stephens - Vocal

Congratulations to all involved! More photos are available on our website, follow the New link at the bottom of this Newsletter.

Sport

Week Ahead:

Friday 8/11

Girls Futsal Training
La Storta
3pm

Monday 11/11

Touch Training
Field
3pm

Boys Futsal Game
Pulman Arena
4pm

Girls Futsal Game
Pulman Arena
4:30pm

Tuesday 12/11

Touch
Boys
Girls
James Cooks High

Wednesday 13/11

Basketball Training
La Storta
3:15pm

Volleyball Training
La Storta
3:15pm

Thursday 14/11

Girls Volleyball
Semi Finals
Pulman Arena
4.00pm

Y8/9 Boys Futsal Training
La Storta
12.50pm
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This Week's Results:

Girls Volleyball vs. Sancta Maria Novas
Loss
22-25
22-25

Girls Volleyball vs. Papatoetoe
Loss
20-25
18-25

Boys Futsal VS Sancta Maria College
2-14
Our St Ignatius boys team played a very strong Sancta Maria team. They hustled and played well, with lots of shots on goal, but were beaten by a more experienced team.

Girls Futsal VS Sancta Maria College
0-13
After a couple of games, the girls are starting to play more cohesively as a team. Some great defense helped to keep the score-line down in the first half. However, a much more experienced Sancta Maria team was relentless in their attack in the second half.

Touch
We were unable to get any WINS this week, but are growing as teams, learning as we go. The teams are developing structures, and confidence on the field.

Mathematics

Six of our students made it into the Final Challenge of Otago Problem Challenge. This is a challenging competition where you can lose marks if you get a question wrong so you need to be quite confident in your answers. Close to 2000 students participated across the country! One of our students, Samuel Speedy, scored in the top 10% of their year level and receives a Distinction prize.
Congratulations Samuel!

Ākonga Elective

Kapa Haka

Student Kaiara Roberts (9XB) shares her thoughts on this elective:

Kapa Haka these last two terms have  been an amazing learning experience, we have learnt new Waiata and Haka as well as learnt the meanings behind what we are saying. Currently in Kapa Haka we are learning our own school Haka that is going to carry on throughout the years and be very special to the school. Kapa Haka is made up of year 7's, 8's, and 9's who all share the same bond of wanting to learn about the Maori heritage. I am so grateful to have joined Kapa Haka this year, it has taught me so much about the meanings behind everything we sing and to share our culture. 

STEM Club

This week in STEM club we took a break from building our robots and went outside to construct a self-supporting (No nails) DaVinci Bridge. After a few failure we were finally able to construct the bridge and have ākonga walk across it. 

Young Vinnies

Yesterday, the Young Vinnies group cooked meals for the food bank that runs out of Saint Patrick's Pukekohe Parish. This formed part of their learning on food security. Heading in the holiday season, the need for food always increases, so we were happy to do our part. They all worked hard and demonstrated excellent teamwork. 

Nacho's News

Our student led newspaper has their next issue out now! Just follow the News link at the bottom of this newsletter to read!

Ākonga Achievement

Congratulations to ākonga Kourtney Sublette, who earned a Gold Medal in Jiu Jitsu at the New Zealand Grappler GI Nationals recently. Well done Kourtney!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Manutaki Certificiates

This week the following ākonga/student were recognised by their Manutaki for having received an outstanding Weekly Excellence Review. 

Year 7 -  Clara Wielenga
Year 8 -  Breonna Johnson
Year 9 -  Chris Thaliath

We celebrate these ākonga/students being more fully alive and reflecting the greater glory of God through their work and actions.

485 Award

Again, we had many nominations this week and it was a pleasure for senior leaders to read of students finding God in others through their nominations. Our top nominations this week are:

Grace Faire nominated Olivia Fleming for showing compassion and competence by being a good friend and helping her study for the exams

Madi Kennedy nominated Olivia Fitzpatrick for demonstrating compassion by comforting her.

Declan Anderson nominated Douglas Easthope for showing conscience by helping him through a tough time in  a lesson

Mia Wright nominated Olivia Fitzpatirck for showing compassion by always helping her in maths when she doesn’t understand

Loisi Liava’a nominated Carrie Howarth for showing compassion when she picked up rubbish without being asked when walking from the field.

The winner this week was Olivia Fitzpatrick who was nominated by Thomas Eyton-Fa’afiu for showing compassion and commitment when she gave up her time to comfort a Year 8 student who was feeling down.
Well done Olivia!

Principal's Certificate

In our assembly this week Mr Wearmouth and Mrs Bamber-O'Malley talked about how Saints are those who find ways to “feed” others, not just with food but with kindness, love, and understanding. Ākonga Bryn Mair was acknowledged for showing kindness and understanding towards a new staff member, and received a special Principal's Award for this effort.

Cura Personalis

House Leaders 2025

‘The Gospel tradition plainly indicates that the most distinctive aspect of Jesus’ teaching on leadership is his emphasis that a leader is essentially a servant’
 (Lavery & Hine, 2013)

We were very impressed with the number of ākonga/students who applied to be House Leaders in 2025.  The quality of applications was very high and it is encouraging to see that so many of our ākonga/students are motivated to serve our school community and make an impact.  A team of House Leaders has been selected for each House Group.  These positions will be for 12 months after which time we will be appointing our next team of House Leaders.

Click here to see the full list of House Leaders 2025.

2025 Option Selection Year 10

Option selection for our current Year 9 Ākonga moving into Year 10 will occur shortly. 

Please follow the link below to view the option booklet and begin your shared family discussion around the subjects offered.

2025 Option Selection Year 10

Note: That online option selection is not currently open. Further notification of this will be forwarded once the system is ready.

St Ignatius Sports Awards Ākonga Nominations

As we are now in the final term of 2024, we are excited to acknowledge the hard work and sporting achievements of our ākonga throughout the year at our first annual Sports Awards being held December 9th at 9.00am in La Storta.
We are calling for the nominations for the following awards:

Sporting Achievement Award - This award recognizes an individual athlete who has achieved outstanding success in representing their sport at a regional or national level outside of school during the school year.
https://forms.gle/oUhheoRtigaD4hHo6

Student Volunteer of the Year - Recognises a student who has made an impact through their volunteering or administration contributing positively to the wider sports community.
https://forms.gle/om7NJFnuWkyu87As5

Guidelines:
- The responsibility for nominations sits with the Whānau and Community of St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic.
- Ākonga may not complete nomination forms.
- Nominees must have been enrolled at St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic for a minimum of 85% of the year.
Following a review of all nominations the final decision of the recipient for this award will be made by the Sports Department and Senior Leadership.

Please submit your nominations by 12th November 2024.

We look forward to honoring our outstanding athletes at this special event!

Ākonga Diary 2025 Cover Competition

We had many incredible entries for our Finding God In All Things student diary cover competition. The creativity, reflective nature, and talent, blew us away, and made the decision very difficult. Congratulations to Jamie Barillas, who will have her design featured as the cover next year.

2025 SCHOOL PRODUCTION!!

The 2025 school production is 'SHOWSTOPPERS: The Best of Broadway'. From Moana to Mamma Mia, Annie to Wizard of Oz, there is something for everyone in this production!
Auditions commence next week! If you have signed up please double check your day and time slot on the google the Performing Arts google classroom page CODE: nrjmvf6

Note: Please be prepared with your song and the learnt dance and arrive on time for your audition. If for some reason you are unable to attend your audition, please let Mrs Harrison know well in advance so as to give other students that missed out a chance.

Uniform Price Update

Upcoming Events

Grandparents Mass - Monday 11th November at 7:30am 
School Production 2025 Auditions - Mon to Fri November 11th-15th see information below.
Last Day for Sport Award Nominations - 12th November 2024
Xavier House Mass - Wednesday 13th November
Franklin Zone - North Athletics - Wednesday 13 November
House Competition The STEM Challenge - Friday 15 November
Teacher Only Day -  Wednesday 20th November
Year 7 2025 Transition Day - Wednesday 20th November
Confirmation Liturgy - Friday November 22nd @ 11.00am 
Year 7 Quarry Trip - Monday and Tuesday November 25th / 26th
Immunisations Years 7 and 8 - Wednesday November 27th
Neon Fiesta - Friday 29th November 6 -7:30pm
Advert Liturgy - Monday December 2nd 
Year 7 Camp - Wednesday to Friday December 4th - 6th
Thanksgiving Mass - Wednesday December 11th
Final School Day and Prizegiving Morning - Thursday December 12th

PTA News

Hello my name is Louisa Jones-Griffiths. My family are from England and we moved to New Zealand nearly 8 years ago! We have 3 boys of which 2 are at St Ignatius, Arthur in Year 8 and Isaac in Year 7. 

My background has been varied, I have a computer science degree and worked in computing for many years, I then became a self employed photographer and am currently photographing beautiful newborn babies!

I have always loved to help out in the community and thought it was a great idea to join the PTA at St Ignatius. I have never had any PTA experience but wanted to raise my hand to help out where I can, please reach out if you would like to join us, no experience necessary! 

Just a reminder about our events coming up- we'd love to see you at some of them! 29 November 2024 - Year 7 and 8 Neon Fiesta 10 December 2024 - Christmas picnic 21 February 2025 - Year 7 and 8 social event/disco 28 February 2025 - Pickleball night 09 May 2025 - Quiz Night Any questions, please contact [email protected]

Please join us for a Christmas picnic at school to celebrate the end of year and formation of our school community. 

When - Tuesday 10 December
Time - 6 to 8 pm
What to bring - picnic, blanket (folding chair if you prefer)

Bring your throwing arm for Dunk-the-Teacher! 

Sausage sizzle, drinks and ice cream available to purchase.

Raffle tickets available soon for goodie hamper prizes drawn the night.
Further details to follow next week!

Catholic Character

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Over 130 of our ākonga made their First Reconciliation (or Confession)  last Wednesday. In the Catholic Church, this sacrament is not part of the series of the Sacraments of Initiation, which consist of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion (the Eucharist). However, the Church also prescribes that children must receive this Sacrament before receiving the Holy Communion for the first time, because the Eucharist is at the centre of all sacraments. It is a sacrament of healing which prepares the person receiving it to receive Christ with greater spiritual readiness. Through confessing to a priest, Catholics are not only reconciled with Christ, but also with the community of the Church and with all God’s good creation, including with oneself.

For some, confessing our sins to a priest could however be nerve-wracking. There are thoughts like: “What if they tell others of my sins?” or “Would their perception of me be different when I see them again the next day?” “Would the priest then judge me, start seeing me as a bad person?” As they were prepared for the sacrament, the students were informed of the importance of the seal of confession. The Code of Canon Law forbids priests from divulging information received in confession. Of course, this would raise other difficult questions: “Would that include very serious sins, and ones that can help the police solve crimes?” - as already asked by some of our inquisitive students. They were then informed that the penalty for a priest who directly violates the seal of confession is excommunication from the Church. Most, if not all, priests would not betray their priestly duties to maintain the seal and to uphold the immeasurable value of the sacrament, not only for the penitent’s soul, but also the wounds that the penitent’s sin has inflicted on others.  

Confession should be an act of love. In sinning, we have injured relationships - with others, with ourselves, with God’s creation and ultimately with God. In confessing the sins, we express the desire to have those relationships healed; and that desire originates from God. Going to confession is our loving response to the love that God has given us. The priest is an agent of God’s loving grace by representing Christ and the community of God. The homily shared recently at the First Reconciliation liturgy told our ākonga that by going to confession, they participated in God’s saving act of transforming sins into an artwork of love. The more we realise this, the more we can embrace God's invitation for reconciliation with love, more than with fear of judgement.

Community Notices

News