The Faith School Partnership
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Children from the Faith School enjoyed their first overnight stay at Stonyhurst recently, accompanied by their headteacher, Sr Moira Meeghan, and their class teachers.
As well as the excitement of a sleep-over in ‘The Plunge’, in a building not unlike Hogwarts, a packed programme kept them very busy, beginning with some football and rounders in front of the Jesuit Gardens; this drew in lots of Stonyhurst pupils, glad of the sport between exams, in the wonderful sunshine.
Calmer activity followed with a visit to the College Collections. Mrs Graffius introduced the children to a range of precious artefacts, including an archbishop’s pectoral cross and ring which they were delighted to try on! Then came a visit to the Observatory with Mr O’Reilly.
A trip to the Wild Boar Park was a highlight, where the children watched meerkats and wallabies, fed lambs, held chicks and learnt a lot about photography from George! Finally, the action-packed day was rounded off with a walk over Jeffrey Hill; Mr Eachus led everyone through dramatic mists rolling across from the Irish Sea and ensured that everyone slept extremely soundly after lights-out.
Day 2 and, after singing practice in St Peter’s Church, the children were put through their paces with some CCF team-building activities, painstakingly set up by NCOs, Alice Holden and James and Powell. Cam-cream and dart-firing nerf guns proved very popular and everyone worked well together to build bridges, negotiate mine-fields and solve conundrums in the undergrowth.
This was a very special and unforgettable visit, thanks largely to the generosity of everyone involved, especially the Grammarians for their whole-hearted involvement in the partnership programme.
