From the Principal and Head of Co-curricular

Our co-curricular program invites students to benefit from and contribute to the formation of community through the companionship experienced between students and their families and with teachers and coaches.

In recent weeks, our students have achieved remarkable feats in co-curricular activities, showcasing their talent, dedication and hard work. Our athletes have dazzled in various events, delivering outstanding performances and securing impressive outcomes. It has been a very exciting term for Co-curricular!

• At the State Athletics Championship, many of our students reached personal bests and secured podium finishes.
• Our First Four Girls’ Crew made history at the Head of the River rowing competition, clinching a silver medal – our best result yet!
• Our Junior School students partook in a footy masterclass, led by the Brisbane Lions ahead of the AFL Gather Round. Our future football stars had the opportunity to train side-by-side with the best in the game.
• The Open A2 Badminton team won the premiership in their debut year in A Grade.
• The Drive Team in Tennis were runners up of the A2 competition, our strongest result in a number of years.
• Open A Girls Touch Football played in the A Division for the first time in 10 years.
• First XI Cricket played in the Division 1 competition for the first time in 5 years and won the inaugural Intercol 2-day match played in week 8.
• Middle B Girls Basketball team are undefeated.
• Music Base Camp (Senior School) was a wonderful experience under a new format focused on in-depth work within ensemble groups and with the expertise of Lauren Henderson from the University of Adelaide, Lachlan Bramble from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Vashti Tyrell from Jazz SA. Junior School Music students have also shown great commitment and growth through their rehearsals, in anticipation of upcoming performances and their camp next term.
• Innovative Technologies is seeing new energy under its new name (previously STIGIT) and leadership, with our Junior School numbers being largest since the program’s inception.
• Year 6 students involved in the Musical demonstrated great courage and skill in their auditions, with rehearsals commencing next term.

Further to these achievements, this term, our College witnessed an exciting milestone with the launch of our High-Performance Athlete Program. The program's launch featured AFL Premiership player Heath Shaw, who inspired our athletes both on and off the field. Deven Bell, High Performance Sport Leader, has been working with our Open A teams to embed strength and conditioning into the athletic development of our students and has commenced tailored athletic formation and mentoring of the 17 elite athletes selected for the ‘High Performance Group’ (Tier 4) of the program. We look forward to further embedding a culture of High Performance at Saint Ignatius’ College throughout 2024 and beyond.

The achievements and highlights are so often what we see and celebrate, but it is the many hours of hard work from our students, parents, coaches and managers within our culture of human excellence that is to be commended and celebrated. It's the moments ‘in between’ – the companionship, support, courage, leadership and acts of kindness that define our Ignatian spirit. These moments include our athletes cheering each other on in meets and matches; new Year 7 students stepping up to play in a Senior team to avoid a forfeit; Junior School students trying new activities and skills; and the demonstration of humility and sportsmanship in the face of defeat. These all exemplify the unity, strength, and compassion of our school community.

The culminating community experiences for the College community this term were the Years 3-12 Athletics Carnival and Years 7-12 Swimming Carnival. We congratulate Xavier House (Junior School) and Campion House (Senior School) for winning and Regis House for being awarded House Spirit (Senior School) at the Athletics Carnival, with Swimming Carnival results to be announced next week. These events were a testament to the strength of participation and athletic performances of our students and spirit of our community.

Our students continue to be wonderful contributors out of their gifts and talents, enriching our vibrant community. Amidst our continuing endeavour of excellence in all things, ultimately, it's the character, kindness, leadership, and resilience in our Ignatian students that make us so proud.

Lauren Brooks, Principal & Jess Morrish, Head of Co-curricular

Please click HERE to view the Junior School Sports Reports - Term 1 Week 8

Please click HERE to view the Senior School Sports Reports - Term 1 Weeks 8 & 9.

The Junior School Swimmers have been out at the Norwood Outdoor pool every Thursday morning at 7.15am improving their skills, endurance, and teamwork under the guidance of coaches Tasmin, Sophie and Joey.

Along with our competition group, we have a development group aiming to improve their endurance and ability to swim in the long 50m pool. We were impressed with their commitment although there is the added reward of sausages and cookies at the end of the session due to the generosity of several parents, coordinated by the Cappo family.

Competition swimmers were selected to compete in the SAPSASA District Day and then the Catholic Primary Schools Carnival. Congratulations to Satva Patel, Aarnav Anthony, Margot Perry, Ollie Delvins, Jessica Qian, Chen Xi Wang, Wayne Qian, Leonardo Natale and Dylan Wright for making their Ignatius Swimming competition debut in 2024.

SAPSASA competitions in the East Adelaide district are highly competitive with only the first-place getter guaranteed a swim at the State Carnival next week. We took a team of 19 students to this event. Our school had some wonderful swims with Chen Xi Wang, Laurel Yang, Mikey Covark, Adella Jia, Sukti Patel, and Thomas Mazur all progressing to the next event.

In the Catholic Primary School competition held on 25 March we can take three swimmers per event which then increased our team numbers to 29. Congratulations to Thomas Mazur, Mikey Covark, Harry Baldas and Adella Jia for winning their respective age group champion awards. Our Year 4 Boys (Zhi Qiao, Ollie, Harry B, Jack) won their overall age group as did the Year 6 girls (Sukti, Adella, Alice, Chen Xi, and Mila). Thomas and Harry B also broke records on the day with special mention to Thomas for breaking 5 records, and now holding 9 records overall. The Year 6 girls relay team of Sukti, Adella, Chen Xi and Mila also broke the Year 6 girls 4 x 50m Freestyle relay record.

As well as the high performances, we have had some students improve their personal best times across many events, from the first training session to the last competition. Some highlights were Aarnav improving his 50m Backstroke time by 20 seconds, Ollie improving his 50m Freestyle time by 7 seconds, Margot improving her 50m Breast by 22 seconds, Jessica improving her 50 Fly by 14 seconds, Harry D improving his 100 free by 18 seconds, Greta improving her 50 Breast by 11 seconds. Congratulations to those students and families on their achievements as well.

Thank you to the parents, and grandparents, that attended training and competitions to support their children and the rest of the squad. I love that the Ignatius students are so keen to support and cheer for each other, and even congratulate their opponents at the end of races as well. This was shown when we recruited Satva (Year 3) and Harry B (Year 4) to swim with Mikey and Ben in the Catholic Schools Year 5 relay, helping them to first place.

Adele Polyak
Teacher-in-charge of Swimming