Reflecting on Relationships
Last week we had an amazing couple of days with the year 10s from Nicholas Breakspear School. The students came to Verso Church for a day reflecting on relationships. Chris kicked the day off and led a great reflection on how good relationships are like phones, we played some get-to-know you games, a bit different to our normal crazy ones that involve shoes and paper plates, and after the very important and always necessary doughnut break the students went off into their groups to start their workshops. We ended the day with a mass led by Father Norbert and a slideshow of some of the photos taken during the day. I love that every year group at Nicholas Breakspear has the opportunity to go on a retreat with us every year.
We had some excellent workshops for this retreat. Considering the theme was relationships we just had to include the relationships wonderland that is full of some beautiful board games that have been donated by some of Step’s supporters and what a blessing these games are! Every time I walked into the room, I could see students having fun playing games laughing and connecting with one another and with some of our wonderful volunteers and staff. I think it’s vital that we could create this space for the students to spend time with friends and have fun. I hope this will encourage them to get the board games and card games out at home too.
We also had a fantastic pottery workshop led by the team from Network Church who run pottery sessions in Harpenden. Our Step volunteers also enjoyed getting their hands dirty. The workshop starts with a short reflection. I managed to listen to one that spoke about how in the same way that we have to work at creating a piece of pottery on the potter’s wheel we also have to work at creating beautiful relationships in life. Trevor gave this talk whilst creating a jug, after he had finished it, he squashed it and said sometimes relationships can go a bit wrong but that we can choose to love and to forgive and maybe create something new and just as beautiful or even better than before.
The students were also learning about what we truly value in life. They did this by being involved in an auction but the things that they were bidding for were things like a lifetime subscription to Netflix, finding true love, unlimited Apple products, having a family, a house of your choice or ending world poverty. I wonder what you would choose to spend your £10,000 on? I think it’s great to give young people a chance to reflect on what they value in life. Often it is time and experience that teaches us what’s really important in life but how awesome that these 14/15 year olds are getting a chance to consider this question in a fun and engaging way. I have to say Graham who led this workshop has led the Life Auction session a lot this year and so is somewhat of an expert now, so if you need an auctioneer, I’m sure he would be able to help :)
Our final workshop was a Haven taster session that gives students some tools to help with problematic anxiety. The Haven course is amazing and on one of the days we even had Claire the founder of the Haven course come and lead. I have just finished facilitating a Haven course at Nicholas Breakspear School and it was such a privilege to lead a small group each week knowing that what they were learning was going to really help. Every week there is a new tool to learn, from breathing techniques to ideas for self-care kits. The students have time to practice the tool and to discuss the issues surrounding the impact of anxiety on their life. Often we see that one of the things the students find really helpful on this course is joining together with others who have similar challenges. Another great thing on the course is that we get to acknowledge that God can give us peace and that Christians find God to be an amazing source of support in their lives.
These Step Days, or Retreat Days as we call them at Nicholas Breakspear, are always so worthwhile and I am blown away every time at how much our volunteers give of their time and energy. So, thank you to those who came and helped out last week we really could not do this without your support!
Steph
We had some excellent workshops for this retreat. Considering the theme was relationships we just had to include the relationships wonderland that is full of some beautiful board games that have been donated by some of Step’s supporters and what a blessing these games are! Every time I walked into the room, I could see students having fun playing games laughing and connecting with one another and with some of our wonderful volunteers and staff. I think it’s vital that we could create this space for the students to spend time with friends and have fun. I hope this will encourage them to get the board games and card games out at home too.
We also had a fantastic pottery workshop led by the team from Network Church who run pottery sessions in Harpenden. Our Step volunteers also enjoyed getting their hands dirty. The workshop starts with a short reflection. I managed to listen to one that spoke about how in the same way that we have to work at creating a piece of pottery on the potter’s wheel we also have to work at creating beautiful relationships in life. Trevor gave this talk whilst creating a jug, after he had finished it, he squashed it and said sometimes relationships can go a bit wrong but that we can choose to love and to forgive and maybe create something new and just as beautiful or even better than before.
The students were also learning about what we truly value in life. They did this by being involved in an auction but the things that they were bidding for were things like a lifetime subscription to Netflix, finding true love, unlimited Apple products, having a family, a house of your choice or ending world poverty. I wonder what you would choose to spend your £10,000 on? I think it’s great to give young people a chance to reflect on what they value in life. Often it is time and experience that teaches us what’s really important in life but how awesome that these 14/15 year olds are getting a chance to consider this question in a fun and engaging way. I have to say Graham who led this workshop has led the Life Auction session a lot this year and so is somewhat of an expert now, so if you need an auctioneer, I’m sure he would be able to help :)
Our final workshop was a Haven taster session that gives students some tools to help with problematic anxiety. The Haven course is amazing and on one of the days we even had Claire the founder of the Haven course come and lead. I have just finished facilitating a Haven course at Nicholas Breakspear School and it was such a privilege to lead a small group each week knowing that what they were learning was going to really help. Every week there is a new tool to learn, from breathing techniques to ideas for self-care kits. The students have time to practice the tool and to discuss the issues surrounding the impact of anxiety on their life. Often we see that one of the things the students find really helpful on this course is joining together with others who have similar challenges. Another great thing on the course is that we get to acknowledge that God can give us peace and that Christians find God to be an amazing source of support in their lives.
These Step Days, or Retreat Days as we call them at Nicholas Breakspear, are always so worthwhile and I am blown away every time at how much our volunteers give of their time and energy. So, thank you to those who came and helped out last week we really could not do this without your support!
Steph
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