‘The Journey’
After spending the Christmas holidays working hard revising for their GCSE mock examinations, Upper V sat their mock exams as soon as they returned to school in January. At the end of the mocks Upper V enjoyed a day of reflection and respite with their post-mock retreat, ‘The Journey’. Tallulah Bret-Day, Upper V Alpha, tells us about their experience:
‘On 15th January 2016 we finished our first taste of exam life in the Upper V mocks. After all the stress and concentration of revision and exams under examination conditions, we had all prayed for the day of our Post Mock Retreat, organised by Mrs McDermott and Ms O’Brien. The day incorporated elements of our own creation such as our liturgy as well as the pre-prepared foot painting which had been organised by our teachers.
We started our wonderful day in our own clothes, discussing our biggest obstacles and fears. Although this year will be difficult I feel as though we are all seeing it as more of a challenge and were encouraged to look at it in this way on our retreat. We took all our hopes and fears and wrote them down privately on a piece of paper. These were then used as gifts during the offertory procession in our liturgy. After this, we began to create our foot painting masterpieces. Even though we made an awful mess, I think this exercise was so much fun and reminded us of when we were younger and didn’t have so many responsibilities. Again, each of the pictures of our feet were placed along the aisle in the Chapel as a decoration for our liturgy and a visible reminder of the journey we are all on.
The next stage of the retreat was to prepare our liturgy. As we split up into groups, we all tried to incorporate creative ideas to tell the story of our day and to help us persevere in the months leading up to our GCSE exams. Everyone worked to their strengths as we had interpretative dancers, actors, orators and design teams all working to produce in the end a very ‘Upper V’ style of liturgy.
We ended with a poetic prayer from Ms McDermott about how as women we must strive to create the best possible futures for ourselves with the opportunities we have now. I think this summed up the whole day and communicated what the retreat really meant. This year doesn’t end at mock exams and if we can make it to the GCSEs with the encouragement of all the fantastic grades we achieved in the mocks then the summer exams can’t be all that terrifying!
The whole day of the retreat was a wonderful way of bringing to a close the mock exams period, and prepare us for all the hard work (and success) of the summer. Thank you so much Ms O’Brien and Mrs McDermott for such a spiritual day, from all of Upper V!’
We all wish Upper V the very best as they work towards their GCSEs and know that the mocks and the retreat are all part of a great preparation.
Categories: Faith Life Senior Whole School
