Exploring the importance of community at St Gregory’s
During Children’s Mental Health Week (9-13th Feb), the St Gregory's community has been proud to participate and celebrate the theme “This Is Your Place”. Students have helped to curate a beautiful display of images and personal reflections, sharing the experiences that have made them feel that they truly belong in our school family.
One student wrote about joining St Gregory’s in 2021, they explain:
“I felt nervous because I was the only person from my primary to come to this school. One experience that helped me feel I belonged was joining the school rugby team and making it to the Somerset cup final two years in a row. This mattered to me because it was my first time playing rugby and I felt like it was my sport.
During my time here I have grown by being involved in afterschool clubs and staying motivated to go to the gym and partake in school sports such as rugby and athletics. This school has shaped me by supporting me through my struggles at the start of my time at school and developing me into a more confident and outgoing person. Although I struggled with behaviour in my early years I have now matured and grown during my time at school. I now captain the school rugby team and feel like St Gregory’s is my place.”
This is just one of the many inspiring stories shared by our students this week, detailing personal experiences of overcoming challenges and reminding us that belonging matters.
These shared experiences were also explored in an assembly reflecting on why belonging truly matters, and how each of us has a responsibility to help others feel seen and valued within our community.
Students were invited to take part in a range of lunchtime activities designed to strengthen our sense of community and belonging, from meditation and yoga sessions to a lively students v staff dodgeball match.
Together, through reflection and shared activities, we have celebrated what it means to ensure that at St Gregory's Catholic College, everyone knows that this is their place.
St Gregory’s and St Augustine’s Young Volunteer Groups explore refugee issues with the Columban Missionaries
On Tuesday February 10th two wonderful groups of year 10s from St Gregory’s and St Augustine’s who are participating in the Young Volunteer Programme had their second day of input alongside pupils from two other schools in the diocese of Clifton. Following on from their success with the mission of the SVP, this time the students were led by the Columban Missionaries who focused on issues surrounding refugees and migrants.
The Columban Missionaries were founded in 1918 by Fr. Edward Galvin and Fr. John Blowick for missionary work in China, and take their names from St. Columban, an Irish monk and missionary who preached the Gospel in Europe in the Sixth Century. Today, Columban missionaries are called to bring life to the full for people and communities around the world experiencing poverty and living on the margins of society, with special emphasis in Asia, Latin America, Oceania, Ireland and Britain.
For their input in the second day of the programme, we were led by James Trewby, an experienced former teacher who has spent years visiting and living in different cultures and communities around the globe to spread the joy of the Gospel and bring the mission of Christ to life.
He spoke at length and passionately about the rift between our Christian mission to “Bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free.” (Luke 4:18), - and the way society (even at times in the name of religion) treats the very people our faith asks us to support. He was able to show us the work of a house in Birmingham that does incredible work with displaced families, supporting them with education, integration and many other ways.
The sessions of the programme follow the Catholic Social Teaching method of See, Judge, Act, with the young people spending time reflecting after lunch through a variety of creative prayer stations before the going forth challenge to Act.
Our groups have chosen to take the message of the day, encapsulated in a hymn written by James, and plan to teach and share the hymn with many of our feeder primary schools in the coming months as part of a workshop. All of the students are witnessing to others what it means to be Lasallian by spreading the message of inclusivity, respect for all and reaching out to those on the margins.
