ST ALOYSIUS'
COLLEGE
SCHOOL HANDBOOK
The CHRISTIAN LIFE of the SCHOOL
The school is a Christian community and, as such, lives, learns and celebrates according to the values of the Gospel and the Roman Catholic tradition of Jesuit spirituality and education. All staff are involved in the formation of pupils in wisdom and faith.
Senior School
The Christian Formation Team consists of Jesuit and lay members who co-ordinate a wide range of voluntary activities including retreats, prayer and worship, pilgrimages, and community and service projects.
Day retreats are held at the beginning of the year for S1 pupils and during activities week for S2. S3 pupils have a weekend residential retreat. S5 pupils go on the Kairos Retreat and there is a Sixth Year retreat just before Easter.
S5 pupils have the opportunity to make a walking pilgrimage to either Iona or Lindisfarne, ancient Christian sites in Scotland and northern England.
As pupils move through the school, they are encouraged to take on roles of service and lay ministry through involvement in the liturgy, including by being Eucharistic Ministers.
The College gathers as a community at worship for the great feasts and seasons of the Church, at Christmas, Lent, Easter and Ascension, for its Jesuit patronal feasts of St Aloysius Gonzaga, St Edmund Campion, St Ignatius Loyola, St John Ogilvie and St Francis Xavier, and at the Academic Mass at the beginning of the school year. The school uses the church of St Aloysius for these events.
The Junior School has its own pattern of monthly school Masses, class Masses, and celebrations on major Feast Days. Parents are welcome to attend Junior School Masses.
There is a voluntary Mass celebrated in the College Chapel before school each day (beginning at 8.35am), at which parents are most welcome.
Religious Education focuses on the three key elements of theological formation (including the related disciplines of philosophy and ethics), spiritual formation, and Christian lifeskills. In S5 and S6 pupils have 2-hours of RE a weeek.
The Junior School celebrates Mass together in St Aloysius' Church each month, on holydays of obligation and special feast days. Parents are welcome to attend. Junior classes have two class Masses per year. These are held in the College Chapel. The Infants and Kindergarten Sections have a special liturgy at the end of each month.
There is a Junior School carol service in the week leading up to the Christmas holiday.
The Junior School day begins and ends with formal prayer and in the tradition of Ignatian spirituality the children will be given opportunities to engage in reflective prayer.
Children are encouraged to be aware of and to respond to the needs of others throughout the school year as opportunities arise. There is, however, a special charities week in the Summer Term when each class raises money for projects at home and abroad.
The Junior School uses Circle Time to help pupils understand their current situations and liberate them sufficiently to perceive new possibilities, and to develop the personal strength needed to achieve the changes they wish to make. It is approached in a similar way to drama to encourage spontaneity, creativity, imagination, non-verbal communication, reflection and pleasure. Each class sets aside some 30-minutes once a week for Circle Time.
Children are prepared for first sacraments in accordance with the revised arrangements of the Archdiocese of Glasgow. P3 children are prepared for their first confession (Sacrament of Penance). P4 children are prepared for Confirmation and first communion (Sacrament of the Eucharist). The sacraments themselves are celebrated in the child's parish by arrangement with the parish priest.