To warmly welcome our new year 7 students to the spiritual life of the school and help develop their school identity, each September the whole year group will be taking part in a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a truly incredible place of prayer and spiritual encounter.

The pilgrimage is a way for students to draw deeper into the love of Christ by learning about individuals that have great significance in our school. In Canterbury we had a tour of Canterbury Cathedral which contains the tomb as Cardinal Reginald Pole, the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, our namesake.

 

 

Here are some quotes from Year 7 pupils:

 “The trip to Canterbury was amazing. I enjoyed myself. My group and I got to light candles and talk to our tour guide.” Mary – Estelle Amodemaja

 ‘The building was massive and our guide Father David, who recently retired as a priest, told us that there used to be over 200 monks in the church at one time!” Vernon Solomon

 “It was amazing and so many interesting facts! I loved it!” Dillon Pepra

 “We saw Cardinal Pole’s grave and after we saw where Thomas Beckett died”. Caera- Marie Tague

 

Students were given an opportunity to light a candle and pray a special request.

 

Our next stop was to the Franciscan gardens where we had a time of reflection led by our Chaplain on the theme of Jesus being the ‘Light of the World’ and our ability as His disciples to be able to reflect His light to others.   

Students also visited the ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey, a site build by a monk, St Augustine of Canterbury and 40 men who accompanied him in the mission of renewing Christianity in medieval England in 597. 

 

We finished of the pilgrimage by giving thanks to the Lord for our day by celebrating Holy Mass at St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Church.

“The trip was really interesting and I enjoyed the tour” Hannah Alawa

“Once in a lifetime experience” Jimi Idowu