The Power of Friendship
Here is an account of the Lower IV Retreat which was a welcome day after a week of assessments!
‘After a week of assessments, on Thursday 9th June Lower IV was off timetable to enjoy a retreat day here at school arranged and led by the R.E. department. The theme was the power of friendship.
The day began by listening to a reflection on friendship by Jean Vanier which helped the pupils consider the important qualities of friendship that they are thankful for, either in their own friends or that they possess themselves. They then went out to the field and enjoyed a variety of ice-breakers after which they were divided into two groups to deepen their understanding of friendship through a variety of activities.
In small groups the girls wrote their own acrostic poems, Maddie enjoyed this as, “we worked as a small group and we worked well together.” Libby enjoyed this activity as she, “enjoyed trying to find out all the meanings for friendship.” The girls also read Biblical passages on friendship which they presented as freeze frames. Milly enjoyed this as she said, “We worked with people we usually didn’t work with.” Athena also enjoyed the freeze frames as, “It was fun to do and you learn something.” They read a poem, ‘The Golden Chain’ and then created their own ‘golden chain’ made up of the names of their closest friends. Rin enjoyed this as, “making the golden chain was fun and I also liked the poem.” The girls also created their own islands showing the importance of friends and community in their lives. Noor enjoyed this as, “I liked it because people can just summarize who they rely on in a small amount of space and I also liked the idea that no man is an island because everyone will always have at least someone who cares for them.”
The girls enjoyed a treasure hunt around the grounds where they had to find Biblical quotes that contained bold letters which they had to unscramble to decipher a word. This activity brought out the competitive nature of many of our girls but they worked well together to find the power of friendship. It is hardly surprising that Lower IV enjoyed the search for power as, “Mia and I won and it was fun to look at parts of the school we didn’t always go to.” Even though Emily didn’t win she still enjoyed this as, “I socialised with a person I don’t normally talk to and I spent time running around.”
After lunch the girls planned and led their own liturgy incorporating many of the morning activities in to their liturgy. It was so lovely to be joined by staff and parents at this event. Lily enjoyed this as, “everyone was able to participate and go out of their comfort zone and try something different.” Naomi also enjoyed the liturgy because, “everyone was involved and we had fun putting the liturgy together.”
Overall, it was a rewarding and enjoyable day, Mehru said, “I liked all the parts of the retreat – it was fun and something different in each activity.” Simran also said, “Overall it was fun and brought friendships closer together.” The final word is from Rin, “I really liked the retreat. I think it was very good experience to understand how much friendship is important and what the message from God is about friendship.”
