St Aloysius' College (Malta)

Saint Aloysius College
Mottoes Latin: Serio et Constanter
("Seriously and Steadily")
Established 1907
Religion Roman Catholic
Rector Fr. Jimmy Bartolo SJ
Location Triq il-Ferrovija l-Qadima
Birkirkara
MaltaMalta Coordinates: 35°53′46″N 14°27′37″E / 35.895979°N 14.460183°E
Staff ~100
Students ~1000
Gender Boys
Mixed (Sixth Form)
Ages 5–18
Houses 3
Colours Blue, Green & Red             
Former pupils Old Aloysians
Website www.saintaloysius.edu.mt

St Aloysius College (often abbreviated to SAC) is a Catholic college run by the Jesuits in Birkirkara, Malta. It was founded in 1907 to complement the seminaries and tertiary institutions already in existence on the island. Today it is a boys' primary and secondary school with a coeducational sixth form. The College compound also houses a parish church which is used by the school and opened to the public for daily mass. The current rector is the Fr. Jimmy Bartolo SJ.

Amongst its students were former President Emeritus Guido de Marco, former President Emeritus Edward Fenech Adami, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg, and the Chief Justice. Other personalities include international composer and musician Robert Cremona, children's author Saviour Pirotta, celebrity singer Ira Losco.

History

On 8 October 1907, the Jesuits, at the request of Pope Pius X, founded the school with 139 boys. The College served as a hospital for Allied soldiers during the Second World War. The primary school was originally Stella Maris School, a separate school founded by the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary and has been incorporated into the College meaning boys can now attend the school from kindergarten all the way to sixth form.[1]

The Secondary School

The secondary school of St Aloysius College is a boys-only college located in Old Railway Road (Triq il-Ferrovija l-Qadima), Birkirkara. It is three storeys high with another storey underground, and incorporates a small inner ground and a large hall which serves as a Theatre for cultural events held at the College. Such events include the Soirée, the Secondary School Concert and other important events such as the celebration of the Eucharist during important days of the Jesuit calendar. The building was last renovated in the summer of 2006. The college celebrated its centenary in the scholastic year 2007/2008.

The school is known for its emphasis on discipline. Each form has a prefect, who is responsible for all the students in that particular form. He forms part of the board of the secondary school, and his primary role is to maintain a level of discipline, respect and authority over the students in his respective form. Each class has a Form Teacher, who acts as a mentor for the class, and moreover as a representative of the students in relation to school authorities such as the Rector, Prefect of Discipline and Prefect of Studies. Each class also has a captain and a vice-captain; these are two students from that particular class who are in charge of during the changing of periods. Each division also has a division captain and a vice-division captain whose role is complementary to that of the class captain and vice captain. This disciplinary system makes sure that all students follow the rules and that order is maintained. This is also important due to the fact that the college houses more than 100 students in each form.

The college is equipped with science laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology as well as two computer labs and four chapels. These last include chapels dedicated to St. Francis Xavier, one of the three most important Jesuit saints, and La Storta Chapel, a unique chapel in itself. The college also has a sports complex facility with a gymnasium; a pavilion that serves as a basketball and handball court; courts for volleyball, badminton and indoor 5-a-side football; a full-sized UEFA-compliant turf football pitch; a 400m athletics track; and two tennis courts. A swimming pool started to be built but has come to a stop half-way due to financial reasons. This will probably be the last construction project related to sports facilities.

Classes

As of the scholastic year 2009/2010, a new system for the classes was introduced. Instead of letters (1A, 1B, 1C...) each class has been named for a Jesuit (Francis Xavier, Pierre Favre, Aloysius Gonzaga, Ignatius Loyola, Giuseppe Pignatelli...).

The Students' Council

Another feature of the Secondary School is that it has its own Students' Council. Elections take place annually and every student is eligible to contest. The Council is formed of 10 members, with two representatives from each form. The Council's President must always be a fourth/fifth former, depending on the time of year. The Council is responsible for the majority of the events that occur within the school, including the organisation of casual days and the Form 5 School Leaving Party, better known as the Social.

The Sixth Form

The Sixth Form Section

St Aloysius College Sixth Form has been in existence for the best part of 30 years. The Sixth Form offers four major courses, these being the Science Course, Maths Course, Commerce Course and Arts Course, each taking around two years. All courses are assigned two classes each, the exception being the Arts Course with three classes, as the number of applications for it is generally higher. The college accepts around 220 new students per annum, provided that they have passed their core subjects at O Level. The college is well-equipped with biology, chemistry, physics and computer laboratories, a media room, a library and an assembly hall. A chapel is also situated within the premises. The college is in high demand for sciences.

The Sixth Form also hosts many events in the course of the year, and is perhaps most famed for its Cultural Soiree, which normally takes place towards the beginning of February and has a reputation for being excellent. It is always a very successful event, with ticket sales reaching approximately 1,700 for the year 2009. The Soirée generally contains many items, including dancing, acting, singing and music. It always concludes with an 45-minute-long musical directed and choreographed by the students themselves. Recent examples of these musicals were Cats in 2006, and Jesus Christ Superstar in 2007. In 2008, the musical was Hairspray, followed by Mamma Mia in 2009, Lion King in the year 2010 and Moulin Rouge in 2011. In 2012 the musical was "We Will Rock You" while in 2013 the musical was "Grease". In 2014 the musical held was "Wicked", while the 2015 musical was chosen to be Aladdin. Every year, the stage crew also presents a small act dubbed the "crew item".

The Sixth Form Students' Representative Council

Another feature of the Sixth Form is that it has its own Students' Council. Elections take place annually with every student eligible to contest. Generally, elections take place around late October. Emended in 2012, the council statute now states that the Council must be formed of 8 students: four coming from the Upper Sixth Form and four from the Lower Sixth Form.


The council's President must always be an Upper Sixth Former. The Council is responsible for the majority of the events that occur within the school, including the organisation of events such as "Unplugged", "The Christmas Dinner" , while having an important say in the famous Soirée.

Saturday schooling

From its inception in 1907, St Aloysius College never held classes on Wednesday but instead on Saturday morning, making it the only school in Malta to do so. On October 13, 2006, a decision was made by Maltese Jesuit Provincial Fr. Paul Chetcuti and College rector Fr. Patrick Magro to replace Saturdays with Wednesdays in an attempt to conform to the practice of other schools. In the view of some, this resulted in St Aloysius' College losing its uniqueness.[2] The change took effect in September 2007, when St Aloysius College adopted the same schedule as its fellow Sixth Forms, De La Salle College (Malta), Junior College (Msida), Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School (Naxxar) and the new St. Martin's College Sixth Form (Swatar - Msida), which opened in September 2007.

Extra-curricular activities

The College Outer Ground

At the College, all students are encouraged to participate in extracurricular activities in order to enhance their experience during their two years at Sixth Form. Among other activities, the school promotes the following:

The college also has its own Scout group, one of the oldest established on the island.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ St Aloysius College - About Us
  2. ↑ The Malta Independent Online
  3. ↑ President's Award Scheme (Malta)
  4. ↑ Young Enterprise Malta
  5. ↑ University of Malta Governance

External links