The retreat programme offers students a chance to step back from the pressures of daily life and take time to focus on their mental and spiritual wellbeing. Focusing on their personal relationship with their faith, students explore themes rooted in the Ursuline Virtues and Catholic Social Teaching through drama, art, team-building activities and reflection. Each retreat is tailor-made for the year group and explores issues specific to them. 

Years 7 - 11

These retreats are held within the school, taking advantage of our two beautiful chapels. These are full day retreats in form groups and are led by Ms. Gillespie, our Chaplain, and their form tutor. Each retreat gives our students a unique opportunity to reflect on themselves as individuals, to consider their place within school and the wider community, and deepen their relationship with God. 

Year 7: “United in Harmony” - Using the Ursuline Virtues as inspiration, students explore their place within Year 7, the unique gifts and talents they each bring to the school, and how they are all called by God to be with us.  Students enjoy the teamwork, the opportunity for meditation, and to spend time in relaxed prayer. One student in year 7 said they learnt "we all bring different gifts and talents" while another said their favourite part was "reconnecting with God and learning about the Tabernacle". 

Year 8: “Created in God’s Image” - Genesis 1:26-27 says that we are all made in the image of God. In Year 8, our students explore what that means for us, how we should treat each other, and how we should treat ourselves as being created in God’s image.  Students appreciate the opportunity to learn that "God created me in my own image" and to "be your own person".

Year 9: “Called to be Saints” - A saint is someone who chose to say ‘yes’ to God, and never stopped saying ‘yes’. The Year 9 retreat focuses on the lives of key saints and how we can be like them in our everyday lives.  Students have said they learn that "the saints did not generally live a perfect life" and "to always love and follow God".

Years 10 &11: Students in Years 10 and 11 have the opportunity to take part in a two-day residential retreat run by the Brentwood Catholic Youth Service at their retreat centre, Walsingham House. Spending 28 hours in the beautiful Essex countryside, students explore their own personal faith journey, guided by the youth team. Students appreciate having older teens share their testimony and faith journeys offering time and space to contemplate their gifts and talents using art, drama and music.

Kairos Retreat 

All students in the VI Form have the opportunity to attend a residential retreat exploring faith, charism and leadership while sharing time away together in the beautiful setting of Worth Abbey in West Sussex. The word ‘Kairos’ means  ‘the right or critical moment or time.’ 

 We offer students a peaceful moment of reflection to focus on their relationship with God, and their future impact in the world. On returning to school, Kairos students support the faith journeys of form groups lower down the school through assembly preparation and prayer guidance.