St Francis Xavier College (Canberra)

Infobox School
name = St Francis Xavier College


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location = Florey, Canberra, Australia
religion = Catholic
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principal = A. Tulley
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slogan = Truth and Courage
school_colours = Navy, White, Black
established = 1976
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St Francis Xavier College (abhreaved SFXC) is a coeducational, systemic Catholic high school and college in Florey Canberra, Australia. [http://www.sfx.act.edu.au/about.htm]

The college caters for years 7 to 12 from the Belconnen and Gungahlin areas and is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Catholic Education System.

The School is named after Saint Francis Xavier of Portugal, who was a Jesuit Missionary who spread the Christian message in India and parts of Japan.

Location

It is located on the eastern border of the suburb of Florey. The school was founded in 1976, originally just as a high school (serving years 7-10), and officially opened by Archbishop Cahill on September 24 1977. In 2001, the College graduated its first year 12 students. The college is one of the fourteen Catholic Archdiocesan secondary schools in the ACT. It is located on a large side block, across the road from Saint John The Apostle Primary School, and bounded by Barnard Circuit and Kingsford Smith drive. [ACT Yellow pages 2006, Map 37.]

Refurbishment and facilities

In recent years the College has undergone some major refurbishments and improvements to its facilities. Many areas of the school were completely redone, some of these areas include the Resource Center, an area which all students have access to. The Resource Center contains books of varying subjects and genres, as well as an abundance of computers for online and computer related research. Other areas of the school which were renovated include the maths building and the art building; a new middle school building was also erected.

The school also boasts a fully functional theater area, containing up-to-date lighting and prop equipment, as well as a large seating area for performances such as the school musical held every second year. The school's basketball and tennis courts were also repainted with some new design changes making basketball and tennis a realistic choice for school physical education classes. Additionally, the school has created many "breakout" computing areas in the renovated areas of the school. This, combined with the three dedicated computer areas has increased the number of computers available to students to well over 40 units.

Environmental Awareness

SFXC has moved closer to becoming an environmentally sustainable school. Each classroom has recycling bins for paper and cardboard, students receive Waste Wise and Sustainability education, and a worm farm has been established for food scraps.

Recently SFXC received a A.C.T NoWaste award, which is an award given by the ACT government to organizations with commendable environmentally sustainable no-waste programs.

St Francis Xavier College also recently became the First High School/College in Canberra to be Officially Wastewise accredited.

Extra Curricular

Extra curricular activities offered at the college include:

* Fashion parade and the school musical (These 2 events are alternated every year)
* Production Crew
* Yearbook
* The school magazine (The SFXC Scavenger)
* Amnesty International
* Robotics
* Youth ministry (Mandatory)
* Public speaking
* Chess club
* Manga club
* Kayaking
* Various sports teams
* Debating team
* Band and Choir
* Fishing club
* Statistic Games Club
* Lunchtime Spanish Classes
* Volunteering for local charities such as The Salvation Army (Salvos) and St Vincent de Paul Society (St Vinnies)
* Monkey Training
* World Youth Day
* Hackeysack tournaments

External links

* [http://www.sfx.act.edu.au/ SFX College website]