St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College is a Catholic co-educational secondary school in the Jesuit tradition,[2] located in Burtt Rd, Drury, Auckland, New Zealand.[3]
The college is a year 7 to 13 co-educational school. The school's proprietor is the Catholic Bishop of Auckland and it is a State-integrated school. The college commenced operations on 7 February 2024[4] with 340 students (years 7 to 9), and intended to grow progressively to 900 by 2028.[3] The establishment of the school was the fruition of the long held dreams of building a school in the Jesuit tradition in service of the South Auckland community.[5] The college was the second Catholic school with an "Ignatian charism" founded in New Zealand. The first was St Aloysius College in Dunedin which opened in 1878 and closed in 1883.[6] St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College primarily aims to provide Catholic secondary education for students who attended Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School, Takanini, St Mary’s Catholic School, Papakura or St Joseph’s School, Pukekohe.[7]
Funding
Part of the funding for the establishment of the school came from the Harold Plumley Endowment.[8] Other sources of funding were a mixture of debt, land sales, and donations with final establishment cost being between $70m to $80m.[9]
Appointments and development
The first principal of the college, Dean Wearmouth, was appointed in 2022[10] and the deputy principals, Kane Raukura and Catherine Bamber-O’Malley were appointed later in that year.[11] The planting of the campus commenced in 2022.[12] Enrolments were called for the college's first year (2024) in early 2023 and closed at the end of March 2023 following a high demand for entrance into the school.[13] The college opened with a Jesuit presence on the campus. Fr Michael Smith SJ and Fr Eka Tanaya SJ had been appointed and commenced their preparations in 2023.[11] Father Tanaya was also appointed as a third deputy principal of the college.[5] Father Smith worked part time at St Ignatius of Loyola College and part time at Holy Cross Seminary in Auckland.[14] The school was designated as a Mass centre for its area.[15]
Opening
The College was opened by Bishop Lowe of Auckland on 7th February, 2024 in the presence of local Iwi, supporters, friends, and students. A Pōwhiri was led by representatives from Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua and Ngāti Tamaoho. A mass was celebrated and the classroom crosses and the Statue of St. Ignatius of Loyola were blessed and a ribbon was cut officially opening the college.[16]
Increase
On Tuesday, 4th February, St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College welcomed 123 new Year 7 ākonga (students) and staff with a formal Pōwhiri, conducted in accordance with Tainuitikanga. The roll consequently increased to more than 460 students.[17]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
