Senior School Faith and Service

Faith and Service

As a Presentation faith community, we strive to embody the teachings of Jesus Christ in our deeds and words and take inspiration from the foundress of the Presentation Sisters, Venerable Nano Nagle. 

We recognise that faith and service play an integral role in the spiritual, social and academic development of our students.  

At Iona, we empower our students with religious knowledge so that they can understand the Catholic beliefs and teachings, as well as explore philosophy and ethics in a Catholic context. We emphasise to our students that their participation in the Religious Education Curriculum, coupled with Christian Service Learning, Faith Formation opportunities and Co-curricular Service Groups will assist them to grow into the people God intended, by helping them develop spiritually, academically, physically, morally and emotionally.

Student Faith Formation

Annual Reflection Days for each year group emphasise a different aspect of student faith development and support the ongoing spiritual development of our students. Reflection Days from Year 7 to Year 12 are structured in a way that enables students to develop core characteristics and attributes of a Presentation graduate; that is, being a woman of community, service, compassion and justice. Such days are contemporary and innovative in nature and utilise the gifts and talents of our College staff, as well as external facilitators. 

Additionally, other faith formation experiences offered to the students include, but are not limited to; prayer, masses and liturgies, student immersions and conferences, meditation and other relevant contemporary faith-based activities.

Christian Service Learning

Inspired by our foundress Nano Nagle and the Presentation Sisters, our students share the light of Christ with others through their active participation in the Iona Care Christian Service-Learning Program, ‘One Step Beyond’.  It is our hope that our compulsory Iona Care program will provide a range of meaningful service opportunities for our Senior School students.

All students from Year 7 – 11 participate in Iona Care and the three phases within program: These phases are: 

• ONE Iona – service within the Iona community.
• STEP outside Iona – service in the local community.
• BEYOND Iona – service in the local community with the view to how to maintain beyond the walls of Iona. 

Religious Education Curriculum 

In the Senior School, Religious Education is an academic subject with the same systematic demands and rigour as other subjects and promotes valuable 21st century learning skills such as critical thinking, writing, use of technology and collaboration. All students attending the College participate in our Religious Education program from Years 7 to 12, and it is also offered as an ATAR subject in Years 11 and 12. 

The College teaches the mandated Catholic Education Western Australia Religious Education Curriculum. 

Service Co-Curricular

Service Groups are an integral part of the Co-curricular program at Iona which reflects service as a core value of the Presentation Sisters. We aim to assist students in building awareness, understanding and empathy of social justice and to positively influence the greater student population.

The Senior School Service Groups adopt a 'See, Judge, Act' approach to responding to relevant social justice issues in the community. Students are given the opportunity to listen to guest speakers from different organisations, including our own Presentation Sisters, before engaging in collaborative discussion and determining their own path of action to act on the social justice issue.

Some of the many and varied service groups that Senior School students can enter into at lunchtimes or after school are:

• Young Pressies
• Enviro Group
• Community Cookup
• Uthando Doll Making
• Disabled Surfing