From the Principal

Dear Parents & Carers,

At Saint Ignatius College, we provide a broad range of co-curricular opportunities for our students. Co-curricular refers to the activities, programs, and learning experiences that complement the academic curriculum. For example, sports and performing arts, to mention a couple of areas. We expect our students to participate in such activities where they can.

Our co-curricular program provides opportunities for valuable informal learning, development of skills, challenging themselves, making new friends and building relationships, strengthening a sense of belonging and connection and building school spirit. Research indicates that participation in co-curricular activities is linked to positive academic outcomes, such as students’ achievements and educational aspirations, improved attendance, pro-social behaviours, and more positive development generally. We aim to develop the whole person, and learning and achievement naturally follow when the whole school experience is engaging and positive.

Two co-curricular activities have recently featured – the House Swimming Carnival and the auditions for the College Production of Disney’s “Anastasia”, which will be performed at the end of Term Three.

Last Thursday, we held our annual swimming carnival at Kardinia Pool, Geelong. As mentioned in my article in the previous newsletter, this was the second year of our new format aimed at building a stronger participation culture and House spirit. I commend our students for their engagement. Our Sports Coordinator, Mr Andrew Philp informed me that the number of students competing in races was higher again, there was an increased sense of House spirit, and very pleasingly, more senior students actively participated in the carnival. Well done to the overall winning House - Glowery. Mr Philp will provide more details with the names of the Age Champions in his weekly sports update that he emails to parents and students.

Auditions have commenced for the production to be performed at the end of Term Three in mid-September. The production team currently have a massive task with the auditions. It is great that a large number of students have signed up, and I commend them for putting themselves forward. Hopefully, most will be able to be allocated a part and be involved. While it is a good position to be in, I don’t envy the team’s task of selecting students for the major roles, with so many talented students vying for a part. We look forward to the performances at the newly renovated Geelong Performing Arts Centre and seeing and hearing our students shine in mid-September.

Finally, a reminder that Monday, 13th March 2023, is a public holiday in Victoria, and the College will be closed.

Best wishes for the next fortnight,

Michael Exton | Principal