Year 8 Retreat with the Spirituals

As part of their half-day retreat on Friday 7^th October, Year 8 girls and boys were fortunate enough to receive a visit from singing group The Spirituals. The entire school enjoyed a memorable and uplifting end of year chapel service with The Spirituals in July – have a look at that event here. Now, members of the group Junior and Robyn were back to help Year 8 not only sing together and learn new music, but to help them learn to respect and support one another too.

The workshop saw the pupils taught two songs with inspiring, powerful messages – Something Inside So Strong and I Just Can’t Give Up Now. Junior and Robyn taught the pupils the lyrics, pitch and even some harmonies, but the focus was not so much on creating a perfect piece of music; rather it was about encouraging the pupils to be courageous and push themselves out of their comfort zones through song. It also proved a good chance for pupils from the Boys and Girls school to get to know one another better and work together.

A number of brave girls and boys (and a member of staff, our Graduate Assistant Chaplain Miss Hopkins) volunteered to perform solos, and emphasis was placed on pupils being supportive of one another in order to create a caring, mutually supportive environment.

In a fast-changing world, the attributes that sessions such as this encourage – kindness, courage, a sense of adventurousness – are vital ones that pupils will not only need within school but in the world beyond too. In breaks between singing, the pupils were able to discuss the importance of kindness, trust and courage as a group

Over the course of the sessions, it was clear that Year 8 pupils began to understand this, and we hope that they will take what they learnt with the Spirituals out into the world and their lives.

Many thanks must go to Junior and Robyn for delivering the sessions to Year 8, and to Reverend Markby and Miss Hopkins for organising the Retreat Day. The sessions were truly inspiring and moving for all involved.