St Peter’s Pupils reflect on their school’s Christian vision

St Peter’s Church of England Primary School Year 6 end of year retreat to Whalley Abbey

The Year 6 children of St Peter’s Church of England Primary School, Rochdale went on an end of year retreat to Whalley Abbey, set in the stunning grounds and ruins of a 14th Century Cistercian Abbey, in the beautiful countryside of the Ribble Valley, Clitheroe, on Monday 16 July.

This was a wonderful day where the children were able to look back and reflect on their time at St Peter’s and think about their journey as they leave to go to their new high schools.

The senior leaders really wanted the children to have a fun day filled with activities to get them to really think about their journey through primary school and the years ahead of them; as well as reflecting on their time as friends, working and playing together.

The day started with a lovely sermon led by Rev. Steven Watkinson from St Peter’s Church, Newbold where the children and staff reflected on the events throughout their time in school and looked towards their future journeys and the paths they may follow in the years ahead.

Following this, the children participated in a range of activities all around the abbey and its grounds. Some of their favourite activities included the ‘Treasure Hunt Prayer Walk’, in which the children read prayers and passages from the Bible that were around the grounds of the abbey and found clues to reveal a special hidden message; the ‘Team Building Games’ where the children were put in ‘unexpected’ teams and had to solve problems; and the ‘Line Continuum’  (led by Karen Beal, Diocesan Children’s Officer, from Manchester Diocese) in which the children thought about their worries and concerns about high school and had to rank them in order of how these can be overcome, leading to wonderful discussions and support from one another.

Headteacher, Aelred Whelan explained: “We wanted to provide the children with an opportunity to look back and reflect on their time at St Peter’s and consider how they have lived out our school vision ‘In Jesus, we learn, love and grow together’ over the last 7 years.

The children also came up with some very reflective thoughts about how they will continue to live out this vision, as they move on to their new high schools. This is the first retreat the school has run and proved to be very successful and willnow become an annual event.”