Principal's Message
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Kia ora kotou,
Next Wednesday is the Feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola. We will be celebrating the day together as a college, off our regular timetable, with a skit competition on the life of St Ignatius. Then we will hold Mass, where we will gather in Communion to celebrate his life and his influence on the Church.
You may wonder what a 'feast day' is. In our Catholic tradition it is the day to celebrate the life of a Saint, always commemorated on the day they passed to Heaven. The word 'feast' comes from the Latin word 'festes', which means 'joy' and symbolises a time of celebration. It is a time to celebrate how a saint lived a life of great example to us all, to inspire us to find and focus on Jesus. This is important. We celebrate St Ignatius because through his life and works, and the works of the order that he established, the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, we are provided with a clear template to find God. We are provided with means to find God in all things.
So, this is truly a time for our school community to celebrate. Through the example of St Ignatius and the Society of Jesus, our community is affirmed. We know that we are loved by God, God works within us and amongst us and we can find evidence of God throughout our lives. We can find God in all things. This is powerful for young people. It helps them to realise that they are created unique and special, each having a place to make a difference, to go out to set the world on fire with the love of God. Through this experience, growing into the people they were created and born to be, all of our young people will know who they are and how they can make a difference in the world. What an amazing thing to celebrate.
Inveniens Deum in omnibus.
Dean Wearmouth
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Singing Practice
On Thursday we held singing practice sessions with each of the year levels. Next week we celebrate St Ignatius of Loyola's feast day, and our singing during Mass is going to sound fantastic thanks to our singing specialist Judith.  |
Curriculum
Mathematics
Year 8 students are currently working on their fraction skills in maths. Students from 8M and 8A cut circles into fractions and made pictures out of them. They totalled their circle pieces and wrote their totals as mixed and improper fractions. Here are a few of them!
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Science
Year 7 students completed an experiment about weak and strong acids. Using carbonate solution in different test tubes and a drop of detergent, we tested the height of the bubble foam for the following acids: hydrochloric, nitric, sulfuric, citric and ethanoic.
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Ākonga Elective
Art Club
In the Art Club elective students explored and experimented with a range of visual art media; pastels, charcoal, watercolours, acrylic paint, conte, and polymer clay. Ākonga learnt about portrait drawing and painting, including the proportions of a human face and how to paint drapery. For our first project students drew and painted portraits of Catholic saints, including our school's patron saints Saint Ignatius, Mother Mary, Saint Oscar Romero and Saint Francis Xavier. For our second project students imagined and created art work of their own versions of the garden of Eden, using drawing media, paint, and three-dimensional elements. |
Artworks by Torito Esquivel Garcia (Yr 7) and Penelope Morrissey (Yr 7). Artworks by Katelyn Arkinstall (Yr 7) and Saskia Balle (Yr 9).  Artwork by Skylar Vibal (Yr 8) |
 NZ Pasifika Youth Short Film Competition
Students Iosua and Nagorry Perelini submitted a short film on Monday as an entry for the NZ Pasifika Youth short film competition 2024. The boys have entered on behalf of our school, and the Alofa awards ceremony will be at the end of August, where they will see how they went against the 25 other school film entries from throughout Auckland and Bay of Plenty area.The name of the short film is called 'Decisions' and is based around the importance of making good decisions in your everyday life.
Please watch the short film HERE, as watching helps the boys towards a people's choice nomination.  |
Celebrating Ākonga
This week the following ākonga/student were recognised by their Manutaki for having received an outstanding Weekly Excellence Review.
Year 7 - Ivy Killian
Year 8 - Indiana Falanitule
Year 9 - Milla Fogarin
We celebrate these ākonga/students being more fully alive and reflecting the greater glory of God through their work and actions.  485 Award
We had many nominations again this week and it was a pleasure for senior leaders to read of students finding God in others through their nominations. Some of our top nominations this week are:
Anne Finau nominated Ella Neels for showing compassion for helping her during Maths
Jacob Ennor nominated George Moody for showing love by saying Good morning to every teacher
Daniel Dumper nominated George Moody for helping to set up the sports equipment during lunchtime showing commitment to the school
Olivia Fitzpatrick nominated Ben Hunter for showing compassion by reassuring someone that it was OK when they were feeling down about a grade
Loise Liava’a nominated Torito Garcia for showing compassion and commitment by always putting in effort, helping others and putting a smile on his face
Bella Harman nominated Thia Vitan for showing compassion by helping her when she was having a hard time
Olivia Malele nominated Loisi Liava’a for showing compassion by always checking in on people to make sure they are OK
Felicity Kavanagh nominated Ava Robb for showing compassion by being supportive during the English assessments
Shania Norris-Ruru nominated Summer Morton for showing compassion and commitment by standing up for her brother when he was having a hard time
The winner drawn this week was Pippa Wilson who was nominated by Hayley Thomson for showing compassion by helping her friend with sewing during lunchtime. Well done Pippa!  |
Lockers
Please note that all lockers have now been allocated to students, and we are unable to take any more requests. Lunch on Wednesday 31st July (Feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola)
Lunch will be provided for students next Wednesday the 31st of July to celebrate our St Ignatius of Loyola feast day. This will consist of a hotdog, so if your child does not wish to partake please make sure to pack their lunch.  |
We are pleased to announce that our St Ignatius PTA is establishing.
With your help, we can make a big impact for our students, teachers and school community. Your support will help a variety of school activities and programs while creating a fun, engaging and welcoming Ignatian community.
There is no obligation to volunteer or attend meetings but friendly faces and creative ideas are always welcome.
Our next meeting is a casual social cheese and wine event - it's a great opportunity to get to know one another and build community. All welcome! For catering purposes, please RSVP to: [email protected]
PTA Welcome Cheese and Wine: Tuesday July 30 6:30pm
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International Student Visit - Wuhan China Monday-Friday 29th July - 2nd August
PTA Welcome Cheese and Wine: Tuesday July 30 6:30pm
Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola - Wednesday 31st July
Teacher Only Day - Friday 9th August
Mass for the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola
The college invites its families to join us on Wednesday, May 31st, at 12:10 p.m., as we celebrate a Mass for the Feast of St Ignatius of Loyola. This is a full-school Mass in La Sorta (the College Hall).Spaces are limited, so you need to reserve a ticket using the link below:
https://www.ignatius.school.nz/etickets |
Alpha Retreat
St Mary's Parish are excited to share that we have our Parish Retreat "Inviting the Holy Spirit" this weekend coming 27th of July 2024 at St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College.
Date: Saturday 27 July
Place: St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College in Drury.
Time: 10am and finishes around 4pm.
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Friendship in the Lord
In a more divided and fractious world, true friendship that is strong is never more threatened and needed. Around the time of the Feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (July 31st), a reflection on the meaning of friendship in his life may be illuminating.
In any society, we put pressure on friendship when we cross boundaries. When we are culturally different, friendship could be challenging. If we have little access to the internet, it is even more difficult. If our nations are at war, that adds yet another level of difficulty. Ignatius’ life was full of crossing boundaries and of parting with friends. Seemingly, none of his friendships prior to his Pamplona conversion have survived the remaking of himself and his solitary life at Manresa. It was only when he studied at the University of Paris that he made friends among students, who came from different regions and kingdoms. Ignatius was different, some years older than his new friends, such as Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. He drew them to the Spiritual Exercises, which led them to a life of shared commitment to prayer and service of the poor. Their friendship was deepened as the group gathered to share meals and to talk and walk together.
When the companions decided to go together to the Holy Land, and later to offer themselves to the Pope as a group of Religious available for different missions, they saw themselves as friends in the Lord, whose friendship would not be broken by differences of nationality, distance and any circumstance. For example, Ignatius’ friendship with Xavier was certainly deep, that Xavier kept the autographs of his early Jesuit companions with him when he went to India and to the edge of China. Ignatius’ friendship was very special to him. Others who met Ignatius also spoke of the invitation to friendship that shone in even a brief encounter with him. And among Ignatius’ friends were many women and disadvantaged people.
 For Ignatius, the phrase ‘friends in the Lord’ stressed a special priority, that is the willingness to answer the call to follow Jesus wherever they were called to go. As our school community continues to grow, we hope and pray that in the years to come, many friendships will be forged among our young students, which will not only survive the test of time and differences, but flourish to gain the true meaning of friendship. May they become not only friends who share meals, and talk and walk together, but also become friends in the Lord, that is a band of men and women who willingly answer the call to follow Jesus, to become men and women for and with others.
Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.
(Adapted from a writing by Fr. Andy Hamilton SJ, commemorating the Feast Day of St. Ignatius of Loyola).
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