Hitting the Ground Running

We hit the ground running this term with two retreats within four days at Loreto, which certainly kept myself and the Step team on their toes!

We began by meeting the Year 8s, who we were meant to have seen back in July (but Covid had put the kibosh on that.) We took them through five different sessions around the theme of ‘God and Me’ and it proved to be a really rewarding day. Chris entertained them with his energetic Crystal Maze Café, where they learnt about our iMatter statements through a load of fun games. Helena ran her lovely Contemplative Craft session, where the students had the chance to choose a variety of activities to help them chat and relax together. The students also attended two of our well-loved Step lessons, Who is Jesus? and Walk through the Bible, and finally we helped them develop their critical thinking by taking them through our Ultimate Questions session. We gave the girls the space and freedom to express their own beliefs about God and Jesus, which is something that perhaps took them by surprise, what with them being in a Catholic school.
I led Ultimate Questions with John, one of our incredible volunteers, and we were both blown away by the way some of the students were able to articulate their answers to questions like “Is God real?” and “Is the universe designed or created?”. One girl spoke from personal experience to assure her classmates that God is real, because she had enough evidence needed from her own answered prayers.  

The Year 8s were a lively and intelligent bunch and I think their first experience of Step was a positive one!

And then four days later we were back again, hosting another ‘God and Me’ retreat but this time for Year 7, who had only been in the school for just over a week. We ran many of the same sessions as we had for the Year 8s but added in a pottery experience, which went down a treat. We also gave every student their very own Bible, provided by Good News for Everyone (formerly The Gideons), which was made especially poignant because Jez had explained to them that in some countries owning a Bible was illegal.

Once again we had a fantastic day, despite the pouring rain outside, and I am really looking forward to getting to know some of the Year 7s better as I run The Snug at lunchtimes for them.

There is something very special about our Step retreat days. They allow students to immerse themselves in a topic all day and, as we say to them, it is a chance to step away from the usual school day and think about things they might not normally. We stress from the outset that our Step retreat days are not about academic performance or achieving, but about connecting with themselves, their friends, the Step team, and maybe even God. I hope and pray that the Year 7 and 8 students we met at Loreto recently would say that this was true for them.

Amy :)