The Arrupe Programme

Our Arrupe class of 2023 has been hard at work on their placements. After COVID restrictions prevented us from doing so, it’s great to be able to get back out into our local community. Every Wednesday they dedicate their time to the programme and do what they can to serve the needs of the community. Each week our pupils take something different from their experience of their placement, and always have positive things to say about what they have learned, and how they can support others further. We have gathered a few of our 2023 class’ recent reflections to learn more;

“When I was told I had been assigned a primary school, I was nervous because the brutal honesty of children scares me a little bit. Going into the school and having all of the students wave at me and introduce themselves put me more at ease. I felt like a giant among the students, I never remember being that tiny but I must have been. Any distance I felt from the students was closed at the end of the day when we stood together to pray. It was touching to hear all the students pray with the same words I have been taught; it reminded me that wherever I am, I have a connection to the Church, even as a giant.”

“I faced a battle with my anxiety before my placement, I was so nervous, overthinking everything, but God gave me the strength to go and I absolutely loved it. A special moment for me was when a little girl asked me to explain what “Arrupe” was. She had copied it off my jumper along with “IHS”. This especially touched me and made me realise God is with us always.”

“This afternoon I was helping out with Primary 1. Initially, I was quite nervous as I haven’t had much experience with children of that age. When I arrived, the class was doing music and so I joined in. I found myself doing things I have never done before. I danced to a song about bananas, mangos and kiwis and also sang the song. I was then asked to lead the class and play the claves to keep the rhythm.

“After break I helped a group of boys complete a puzzle, which they really enjoyed. Then, I spent time playing shops with a little girl, who wanted me to be her customer. This experience taught me that I should always try new things and step out of my comfort zone.

“To finish the day the class started to learn about the nativity to prepare for their school show. I sat in the quiet corner with a boy who had autism. I helped him to stay calm and watch the nativity animation. I really enjoyed this week’s Arrupe.“

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“This week I worked with a P1 class instead of P7. We drew pictures of their favourite toys. They drew Batman, Barbie and stretchy superheroes. Seeing all of the children so happy talking about their toys was lovely as their excitement was genuine.

“I also helped them to learn their words such as he, we, she and Kipper (the dog in their book). Seeing their faces light up when they got them right made me feel proud and happy for their amazing progress. It is wonderful what these four- and fiveyear-olds are achieving.”

Members of our Junior School Chaplaincy Team had a wonderful day at Sky Up Academy Studios –where we worked with the staff at Sky to produce our very own climate change news report.

We knew we were in for a special day when we arrived at the studios – where we were able to use state-of-the-art equipment that would be used in the production of real news broadcasts. We were excited to get started. In each of our four groups, we had been assigned job roles. Every team had to produce a segment of the news story, which would come together into one video.

Time was ticking, as we only had an hour to prep and record our segments, which is reflective of the real time constraints that news shows work under. Each group had a producer who oversaw the production, and we also had an Executive Producer whose job it was to make sure everyone was working together in their teams and would have their part done in time.

We all got to do exciting things, like using the green screens and professional cameras – as well as picking the costumes that we would wear! After the hour was up, we all felt confident that we had done everything we needed to do.

The footage we had filmed was passed on to the team at Sky, who would edit it all together for us. Whilst we waited in anticipation for our news show to be ready, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Sky offices at the studio, getting to see lots of people at work and the different roles they had.