Last week, the chaplaincy team from Ratcliffe College came to meet our chaplaincy team. We had a lovely and useful day together and it was fantastic to see how quickly the children became friends and began to enthusiastically collaborate.
First, the teams went to see our outdoor prayer area and worked together to produce an improvement plan. Their top tips were – repainting the arch sky blue or Our Lady and planting flowering climbers over it to create a beautiful and peaceful area, putting in statues of Mary and St Francis and some waterproof cushions for our tree stump seats! The chaplains will be working with the Eco-Team to implement their ideas.
Next, they walked around the school in small teams looking for evidence to answer the questions: How do you know this is a Catholic School? How could we make it more Catholic? It was great to have outside eyes to help us look at our school and discuss these questions.
Our final event, after a shared lunch and playtime, was for the children to plan and deliver a liturgy to the whole school. They chose the theme ‘Friendship’ because, at the start of the day, they were strangers but by the end, they were already planning our next shared day. They included a really perceptive drama all about their experiences during the day, showing the importance of being open to friendship with others. Next term, St Francis will be visiting Ratcliffe. We can hardly wait!
What do you think the Chaplaincy team should work on next year? How can we make our school more Catholic?
