College Updates: Week 2 - Term 4

Salutation:

Greetings your Eminence and fellow 'Apifo'ou Family!

Admin Briefs

The focus for this week was on the Final Exams for Level 6. These exams will run through this week and next week. The Levels 1 - 5 are concentrating on their revision. They have two more weeks to iron out what needs to be done so as to prepare the students well for their final exams in weeks 5 & 6. The Form 7 students are wrapping up their last lots of assignments before they sit their end of semester exams. Of course our Form 7 follows the USP Programs where they do the Foundation Courses this year. The college celebrated the World Teacher's Day yesterday with the Eucharist for the whole school even though it actually falls today.

Marist 'Apifo'ou

The Marist 'Apifo'ou Rugby Club visited His Eminence, Cardinal Mafi, who is also the Patron of the club. This was an opportunity for the Bishop to thank the players and coaches for their great achievement in this year's Tongatapu Club competitions.

Seen here are the official souvenir photos of the Team above and with the supporters below.

Level 6 Final Exams

On Monday this week the Level 6 students embarked on their internal final exams which will be completed next week. After that they'll have at least two weeks to fine tune their preparations for the public external exams.

These sets of photos are from the Level 6 Block. Seen below is the Level Coordinator, Sr. Sesilia 'Alamoti supervising her Form 6M's exams. And what better way to do that than by praying the Rosary for her students! It's also the month of the Holy Rosary.

World Teacher's Day!

The staff and students gathered at the St. Mary's ground in front of the Admin Block for the celebration of the Eucharist. Due to the exams for Level 6, we ensured there were less distractions there, thereby allowing the students to focus on their exams.

Seen above is the Dean of St. Mary's campus, Sr. 'Akanesi Liongi, after being garlanded by a student. Seen below are the retired teachers but who are still going strong, as they were about to blow out the candles to mark World Teacher's Day!

Seen above are Sr. Sesilia, Paea Laukau, Singa Kaifoto, Ha'amonga Tu'ipulotu, and Timote Solo who are among the senior members of our college faculty.

During Mass 50 traditional fruit trees were blessed to mark 'Laudato Si' on the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. The trees were then planted by the teachers and students after the Mass. The Society of Mary marks this day in a special way. Each Marist region and community were asked to celebrate this day in such a way as to highlight the call for 'Ecological Conversion', hence its marking here at 'Apifo'ou.

The rest of the day was then marked with a shared meal and grog! Seen above is the Principal drinking a bowl of kava from a 'mini-Tomuna' bowl! The teachers shared laughter and joy in a relaxed mode as part of honoring mother nature.

Northcote Tonga Tour

A select number of students from Northcote in NZ visited Tonga this week. There were a few schools from Tonga selected to play friendly rugby matches with them. Our Grade 1 boys and Under 14 girls teams played against them. Our students were more excited that they got to play at the main stadium in Nuku'alofa, aka Teufaiva.

Seen here are a few shots of our students with their new-found friends from Aotearoa. Seen below is our star athlete Ane Tali with a Kiwi friend.

Conclusion

May I take this opportunity to thank you all for your prayers and support, especially for the tough week that we went through last week with four funerals. The staff and students have recovered and are focusing on the remaining tasks for the year.

May the powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother in her month of the Rosary help bring to fruition all our efforts throughout the final term of this academic year.

Viva AFC!

Ekuasi