Our Connections
St Patrick's College and the SPOCA have ongoing connections to a number of organizations. In summary, these include the Australian Catholic University, Jesuit Mission. and our 'Partner' Schools. There are web pages which describe something of our connection to the first two institutions (for ACU and JM, click the underlined links above).
Our main Partner Schools are Xavier College, St Ignatius College and Loyola College (See further below, as well as the underlined links). Other schools with which we have less frequent contact include St Ignatius College (Riverview), St Aloysius College (Sydney), and St Ignatius College (Adelaide).
JESUIT PARTNER SCHOOLS
Over the last decade the Australian Province of the Society of Jesus has worked with a number regional Catholic secondary colleges. The Jesuits have provided them with guidance on the Ignatian educational traditions, with assistance in organization and staff formation and with access to the Principals and other Jesuit Education Networks.
Two of these partnered schools are located in Victoria – namely, St Ignatius College Geelong (SICG) and Loyola College Watsonia (LCW). In 2015, during the sesquicentenary celebrations acknowledging the arrival of the Irish Jesuits in Melbourne, SPOCA members were assisted by students and staff from both SICG and LCW. We became aware of some of their stories and opportunities and of their desire to strengthen linkages with the Jesuit spirituality, mission and educational ethos.
Where desired by the schools and practical for us, SPOCA has therefore offered to provide some interactions with students and their old collegians associations, inputs to staff formation, careful access to SPC / SPOCA images & memorabilia and funding for perpetual book prizes.
In addition to those connections, SPOCA, and St Patrick's in past years, have had a special relationship with Xavier College in many respects.
The following links provide further details of the SPOCA's involvement with each of these schools.
The connection between the latter two Colleges and SPOCA was recorded in the following photograph taken at the SPOCA Annual Dinner in 2017.
Paul Buttigieg (SPOCA), Paul Lewis (SIGC) and Chris Lynch (LCW).
