Visual Arts

It has been a big year of Religious Education at Ignatius Park College. Our Faculty aims to provide students with a solid grounding in the Catholic Faith through targeted, engaging topics entrenched in our four Touchstones that enhance their personal and spiritual growth as they journey through secondary school. During our staff meetings, we have been exploring the National Catholic Education Commission’s – Shape Paper on Religious Education, which overtly sums up our aims and desires for students at IPC: Children and young people benefit from Religious Education, the learning area at the heart of the Catholic School. They develop knowledge, skills and understanding leading to positive dispositions about Christianity and other World Religions. As a result, they become informed and active contributors to a faith community as well as a global religious citizen. Every effort is made at Ignatius Park College to ensure that all who seek to share and celebrate our Catholic Christian Brothers heritage through the curriculum engage in religion classes, class mass celebrations and in opportunities to expand their knowledge of and commitment to their own faith traditions in service learning. Next year sees the implementation of Certificate II in Active Volunteering embedded into Senior Religion and Ethics. This ‘course within a course’ will deliver students with four extra QCE points as well as an invaluable qualification will look great on their resumes upon exiting school. It has been a year of change with the concept of blended learning introduced forcibly upon us in the form of COVID-19. The RE Faculty worked tremendously well as a collaborative unit to deliver a seamless transition to online learning in our department. All 36 teachers of Religious Education (who again I cannot thank enough for their tireless dedication and hard work in the subject), as well as those responsible for leadership in Religious Education in the College, constantly seek to incorporate these core perspectives into each and every lesson, utilising the flexibility of their own personal experience and wisdom in Religious Education classes to ensure that an inclusive spirit pervades all learning experiences and class mass celebrations. I look forward to 2021 whereby we continue to consolidate our programs and work hard together in continual reflection and renewal, bringing ever-fresh approaches to Religious Education in all year levels. Mark Holmes | Faculty Leader – Religious Education