by Communications Coordinator | Jun 23, 2021 | Primary school news, Secondary School news, Sixth Form News
Featured above: Photos taken during the online sessions
La Silla Roja, or The Red Chair Campaign, is a Jesuit global citizenship education campaign working to defend the right to education of millions of children and youth all over the world who are out of school. However, this year, due to the Pandemic, it has been quite a special year! This year, the Red Chair has a broken leg to remind us that all education processes, and consequently, all students at every stage of their education have been affected by the pandemic. Their right to quality and inclusive education has been greatly challenged.
“Seventy-two million children is, in my opinion, too many to leave out. I think we could help this by raising awareness that these children are out there.” – Hollie
The St Aloysius Primary School Student Council invited other Jesuit schools to a Red Chair Dialogue. The invitation was accepted by Jesuit Schools in Galway, Ireland; Stonyhurst, UK; and Palermo, Italy (featured below).
Following a planning meeting virtually attended by the leaders, the students met twice online to share how their school life changed and how they had to adapt.
In the first dialogue, the Student Council of St Aloysius Primary School ( intro ppt for interested schools ) to explain the idea behind the Red Chair Campaign. Every school then presented how their school life changed as a result of the pandemic and how they had to adapt (link to Malta’s presentation). In breakout rooms, the students shared positive experiences and how people helped each other to cope with the different losses endured, be they academic, social or even loss of a person dear to them. To complete the session, the students filled in an online survey which focused on more positive aspects of the pandemic.
“We have a few ideas that we would like to introduce to our school next year: there will be a red chair in each classroom and we also hope to have a week during the school year that we focus on the Red Chair” – Ms Grace, Galway.
In the second dialogue, the focus shifted on how we are going to mend the broken leg. The students discussed the way forward and what will help us to live through this pandemic, however long it may take. They also looked beyond our schools and how our school communities can help each other so everyone can get a good and inclusive quality education.
“People in the less wealthy countries need young people to come through and be clever to get them out of poverty.” – Loughlinn
As a result of this online dialogue, the students from the different countries realised how similar their experiences were, and how grateful we need to be for little things, especially those which helped build the community. Mending the broken leg is not a simple option for students in some areas of the world. The participating students realised that no matter what hardships they had to endure in our four countries, there are students in many countries whose right to education is simply non-existent or very limited.
“I loved this experience of doing the red chair project because it is important to realise that we are not the only people in the world and that others exist as well that need our help.” – Richard
Click on the links below to read the individual reports:
The Red Chair Project – England’s Report
The Red Chair Project – Ireland’s Report
The Red Chair Project – Italy’s Report
The Red Chair Project – Malta’s Report
“This pandemic made us more aware that we can create such exchanges through a simple online meeting. Before the pandemic we used to consider travelling to meet students from other schools in person, but this experience taught us that an online meeting is also engaging.” – Andre
Malta have been commemorating the Red Chair Campaign since 2017, but the dialogue was a good springboard for the English, Irish and Italian schools to encourage their student councils to evaluate how they can be advocates for those students around the world who are worse off than our schools. All the participants were awarded a Certificate of Participation (featured below) and a commemorative badge (featured below). As an immediate follow-up, all the schools were invited to pray the RED CHAIR EXAMEN as a school.
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by Communications Coordinator | Jun 18, 2021 | Primary school news
This past scholastic year has been anything but uneventful! Despite many challenges and setbacks, we have pulled through, made the most and did our best, making this year special too, in its own way. There is always so much to be thankful for!
Yesterday’s end-of-year celebration at the Primary School hit two birds: it honoured both the Prep 2’s Holy Communion and the Prep 6’s school-leaving ceremonies.
An interactive Mass was celebrated in the yard with the Prep 2s, while the Prep 6s followed the online stream from the Hall, and the rest of the students and staff from their respective classrooms. There were opportunities for reflection, appreciation, sharing, song, laughter and dance; the celebration ended with two joyful dances involving students and staff. It was a truly memorable (and emotional, as one would expect) day!
You can watch it here
View more photo highlights here
Well done to the organisers and all those who participated! Wishing you all a restful summer break 🙂
by Communications Coordinator | Jun 10, 2021 | Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, Uncategorized
We have recently received a special visit from Eng. Condorelli and his wife, Ms Giuliana Fiori. They had expressed a special wish to visit our College’s Theatre, given that Eng. Condorelli’s father, architect Costantino Condorelli, was the man behind the Theatre’s plan. Back in 1926, he was responsible for managing the erection of the whole Aula, floor, walls and ceiling in concrete; a process of construction which had not yet come to Malta, and of which local craftsmen had no experience. This building was to be the first of its kind, making our theatre a unique and magnificent building to date.
Eng. Condorelli and Ms Fiori were taken on a tour of the theatre, which was followed by an interesting discussion of the theatre’s many unique artistic and historic features, to their utmost delight and appreciation.
Grazie di cuore per la vostra visita!
by Communications Coordinator | Jun 8, 2021 | Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, Primary school news
The results of the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) annual competition are out! YRE is a programme designed specifically for students, with the aim to carry out investigations on local environmental issues.
We are extremely pleased to announce that our Primary School students have achieved some excellent results!
>> Neil Portelli was awarded first place in the litterless competition for his entry ‘Our Home, Reuse!’
>> Luigi Suda was awarded an Honourable Mention for his entry ‘One for all, All for one!’
>> Damian Azzopardi was also awarded an Honourable Mention for his Press Kids article, ‘Washed Ashore’.
Well done to all our Primary School participants, and keep up the great work! You are truly giving the environment a voice!
Click below to see the full list of participants:
YRE Awards 2020 – 2021
The international winners will be announced in September 2021, so the annual YRE Awards Ceremony will be held at the start of the next scholastic year.
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by Communications Coordinator | Jun 1, 2021 | Category 1, Category 2, Category 3, Primary school news, Secondary School news, Sixth Form News, Uncategorized
Monday 31st May was not only the last day of a busy month but also the culmination of a series of discernment sessions organised for our College’s Senior Leadership Team, which involved a close and reflective look at the key global identifiers of a Jesuit education.
A consultative discernment seminar was held at Mount St. Joseph Retreat House. Following an initial prayer and a welcome address by our Rector, Fr Jimmy Bartolo sj, our respective Heads of School presented the key objectives for the next three scholastic years as chosen after the discernment processes in the respective School Leadership Teams. It was very consoling to see that many of the objectives chosen were common among the three schools and touched upon various aspects of the school life: the identity of the school, formation of the school community, discipline, teaching and learning, global citizenship; and maintenance works throughout College. The fruit of the reflections on the ‘Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century’ were then reviewed in light of the suggestions made by all team members, including the St. Aloysius Jesuit Community.
The Coordinator of this whole discernment process, Fr Ray Pace sj, then moved on to introducing some personal prayer time where each member spent one hour of individual reflection and conversation with the Lord to listen to where the Spirit moved every person and to come up with one or two points which they felt were important for the whole College to consider as objectives. Following this hour, the participants were divided into sharing groups for a spiritual conversation exercise. Through the group sharing, the participants listened to where the Spirit could be leading the College for the next three years, and chose specific themes to give direction to the College.
These common themes, which surfaced from each group’s sharing exercise, were then shared with all the participants again. The College Board will now be gathering the fruits of this consultative discernment day to choose objectives for the whole College, which alongside those of the respective schools, will foster a deeper growth of our College community in the coming three years.
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