Savio College
Savio College is a boys' secondary church school run by the Salesians of Don Bosco. It is situated in the west of Malta, in the village of Ħad-Dingli. The school is named after one of Don Bosco's students, St. Dominic Savio.
Savio College | |
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Address | |
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Triq il-Buskett Malta | |
Coordinates | 35.859673°N 14.386546°E |
Information | |
Type | Secondary School |
Motto | "Education is a matter of the heart" |
Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
Established | 1968 |
Administrator | Gerald Mangion |
Headmaster | Jeremy Vella |
Rector | Gerald Mangion |
Staff | ~100 |
Gender | Boys |
Age | 11 to 16 |
Enrolment | ~260 |
Classes | 10 |
Houses | 4 |
Colour(s) | Green and yellow |
Athletics conference | Savio Athletics Club |
Website | https://www.saviocollege.edu.mt/ |
Founded in 1968, Savio College is a Salesian Catholic school founded on the educational philosophy of St. John Bosco. It is a secondary school for boys situated in the midst of the countryside outside of Dingli, Malta. The college has a vast academic curriculum enhanced by a number to extracurricular activities.[1] The college caters for 260 students, supported and guided to develop and grow in all spheres of their life, be it academically, physically, spiritually, emotionally and socially.[2]
Founding
Works on a large house in Ħad-Dingli intended for the fostering and formation of religious vocations began on February 5, 1965. The land in Dingli was provided by Sliema resident Miss Maude Bugeja and Joseph Mangion was put in charge of construction. The construction of the school received financial support from the United States' Mission Office.[3]
On June 20, archbishop Michael Gonzi blessed the foundation stone. It opened its doors three years later and welcomed its first group of 12 students.[4] Some of these students had come from the summer camps at the Salesian Oratory in Sliema.[3][5]
School complex
The school complex is divided into 2 sections: the main school building and the sports complex. Since 2015, the school went through a significant facelift with new electrical and water systems, new furniture, new windows and new technology.
Main building
The main building, in which most classes take place and students spend most of their time houses the live-in areas, a small inner hall & and a chapel. It is also equipped with science laboratories for physics, chemistry, and biology as well as two computer labs.
Sports complex
The Sports Complex consists of two areas: the indoor gym and the outdoor sporting area.[6]
Indoor gym
The indoor area houses the gym is also used as a hall for large ceremonies and a 'games room' equipped with snooker tables, table soccer (foosball) tables and ping pong tables. The games room is primarily used by students who arrive early and during recess when they are unable to go outside due to bad weather.
Notable Teachers
1) Mr. David Pace - Science. Mr. David Pace thought science between 1993 and 1999 to Form 1 and 2 students. He became famous for diverging the subject on the least suggestion about how the universe works and the composition of our solar system, the possibility alien existence, blackholes, different suns and chemicals, multiverse, the insignificance of our own existence and also atheist philosophy. His lessons where fascinating because of the mentioning of astronomical figures such as 'millions of millions of millions of light years away' and 'we are just microbes living on the surface of a small camel bile in the middle of the Sahara Desert in comparism to the vastness of the universe' and ' one teaspoon of the material found in a compressed Neuron star weighs as much as a mountain here on Earth!' He invited the students to join the Copernicus Club every Friday fortnight which is a club dedicated to the study of Astronomy where these themes where explored in more detail. He declared himself as an atheist and even went on T.V. programs to debate the non-existence of God. His lessons were really interesting with occasional visits to the Science labs just to see the test tubes and also outside in the yard to conduct environmental observations with a quadrant and take note of the variety of plants and insects found inside the quadrant. sometimes he takes us to the lab to show us the test tubes. One time his lesson went so far off tangent as to explore political thoughts in the country.
2) Mr. Lippu - Maths. Mr. Lippu teaches Maths from 1997 till present. He really his students to do well in maths. His strategy is to make exams as hard as possible to challenge the students to their limits. He then takes delight in failing the students so that the students always think they will not pass the maths examination in O-level. Only to then discover that the Matsec O-Level is actually much easier than Mr. Lippu standards.
3) Mr. Charles Axisa - computing. Mr. Charles Axisa's thought computer between 1998 till today. In the 1990s his lessons were conducted in the computer lab which was then equipped with a network of 12 computers with a shared server hard disk, windows 3.1. Most lessons were about programming in Pascal which went as far as arrays and storing data in text files.
4) Mr. Hamilton - thought English between 1985 and 1998 to form 1 and 2 students. He also thought English Literature whereby he made his students read passages from Treasure Island and The Last of the Mohicans loud in front of the other students. That way he made certain that the students where reading the books because if he told them to read the books by their own at home no one would have done so except perhaps for a few who took studying seriously.
6) Mr. Johan - Thought Physical Education between 1997 and 2005. Mr. Johan was a football lover and this showed that his P.E. lessons where always really about football and no other sport. He also took care to organise the yearly Bikeathlon which was an excursion with bikes or without bikes on a Saturday in the areas of Dingli, Rabat, Mosta, ta' Qali, Mtarfa and back to Savio College. The song chosen to be the official song for the event was ' Bicycle Race ' by Queen. He promised the sudents to teach them a variety of sports throughout the year including: basketball, volleyball, tennis, sky-diving, wind surfing, surfing, shooting etc. but none of this ever materialized.
7) Mr. Genovese - Librarian (took care of the library between 1995 and 2004). The library was there just for fun in that no one really ever visited it except in the one-time event where Mr. Genovese enforced the students to do so on direct order. This happened maximum once a year.
8) Mr. Falcone - thought Italian between 1990 and present. Mr. Falcone's favourite football team was Palermo and this was an introduction to his lesson. Although he sometimes became strict when he sensed that the class was going overboard he had a particular sense of humour which made his lessons light and pleasurable.
9) Ms. Elaine - Thought Accounts and Economics to form 3,4 and 5 students between 1992 and 2003. Ms. Elaine made sure to give students plenty of HW and was very strict on checking for who did and did not do the HW. Some people did not do the HW sometimes and got away with not receiving punishment on making a scene such as crying and showing enormous signs of sorrowful emotions.
Outdoor gym
The outdoor area houses the basketball court, a pavilion that serves as a handball court, a medium-sized volleyball court, a full-sized UEFA-compliant turf football pitch and an athletics track.
The sports complex was completed in 2003 and the outdoor facilities were upgraded with synthetic grass and athletic field facilities 11 years later.
After-school activities
Apart from usual school activities, Savio College runs an athletics club formally known as Savio Athletics which hosts a number of inner sporting activities and also takes part in national sporting tournaments and leagues.[7][1]
The school also offers a robotics club which actively participates in international robotics competitions and has an active presence in the Malta Robotics Olympiad.[8][9][10]
A school council made up of students help raise funds for school-wide activities, organize social events and plan community projects. The school council also helps raise environmental awareness in collaboration with the EkoSkola Committee.
The EkoSkola Committee acts as a branch of the school council, often made up of students who are also in the school council. Its main task is to make the school greener by reducing carbon emissions and waste, while also pushing towards more environmentally-friendly upgrades to the school.[11][12]
References
- Agius, Monique (2019-01-31). "Watch: 'Creating a unique sense of family' - the Salesians in Malta". Newsbook. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- "Savio College | Salesians of Don Bosco Malta". Salesians of Don Bosco Malta. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- "History". Salesians of Don Bosco Malta. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- "Savio College Turns 50". Times of Malta. Allied Newspapers LTD. 2018-03-02.
- Pisani, Brandon (2018-03-12). "Savio College celebrates its 50th anniversary - TVM News". TVM. Retrieved 2019-06-01.
- "Savio College Gymnasium". DHI Periti. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
- "Savio Athletics Club". Savio Athletics Club. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
- Micallef, Mario (2019-03-11). "WATCH: Students choose to stay after school to build robots - TVM News". TVM English. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
- Muscat, Maria (2016-04-10). "Studenti Maltin jiżviluppaw robot biex jgħin persuni b'diżabilità - TVM". TVM (in Maltese). Retrieved 2019-05-09.
- Hautala-Hili, Karen (May 14, 2015). "Barcelona experience for coding competition winners". MITA.
- Gatt, Lee (2019-06-02). "Driving students for a positive change in the care of our environment - The Malta Independent". www.independent.com.mt. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
- Carabott, Sarah. "Savio College students roll up sleeves and go green with trees, shrubs". Times of Malta. Retrieved 2019-05-09.
External links
- (in English) Savio College Official Website
- (in English) Savio College Official Blog
- (in English) Salesians of Don Bosco Malta Website
- (in English) Savio Athletics Club Website