This weekend has been absolutely great! You guys were lovely to talk to and chat to at tables. I thought the gifts of the Holy Spirit session was amazing and the walk was grate, because you were all so chatty and I only wish we had had more time to chat. Take care.
Sinoia

Well you guys were awesome! I had so much fun, it was great to be able to see both groups working away and really getting on. Although I was working with Holy Trinity, who were awesome! I also loved the opportunity to get to know you guys from Mount St Mary as wel, you were a great laugh and I particularly liked socializing with both groups of people on the walk and in breaks! It’s been a weekend full of laughter and fun and I hope you take that back home with you!

Good luck and God Bless,

Dave

You were all really friendly so easy to get on with! You just got involved with everything and I absolutely loved my samll group and only wished that you could have stayed for longer because we had so many laughs!! Hope you all enjopyed your time here and I hope you all have a great half term!!
Don

A big shout out to my group, I really enjoyed getting to know you. You were a great laugh and really got the most out of the experience.

Thanks a lot for a great time

Matt

It has been an amazing weekend. The banter had been unreal, especially about Jack Wills and rugby…the perfect combination. I hope you enjoyed every second of your time up here.

God bless

Joe

This seemed to be a particularly jam packed weekend and we really seem to have squeezed a lot in! Hello to ‘Gary’ (said in that very weird voice that you used!) You guys were a right giggle and I loved getting to know you. I especially loved our TV advert for knowledge power…it was sooo funny and I loved all the songs in it! Meal times were always good fun because you were just so friendly and easy to talk to, so thanks for all the chats!

Hope to see you up again sometime!

Take care,

Steph

The second half of the week, and you guys sure had a tough act to follow, but you didn’t disappoint and I enjoyed the second half just as much as the first! A big shout out to my small group, you guys were so fun to be around and just had so much energy, so thanks! The artwork you made on Thursday was awesome and to be honest, I thought all the groups artwork were fab! I enjoyed the walk again, as it was such a gorgeous day!

Anyway, hope you have a lovely and restful half term!

Take care,

Steph

Hello everyone, it has been amazing working with you, I’ve had so much fun.

I hope you all got something out of your visit with us, especially playing the word game whilst sharing our ideas. I hope you all come to visit soon.

Peace

Joe

A big shout out to my group, I really enjoyed getting to know you. You were a great laugh and really got the most out of the experience.

Thanks a lot for a great time

Matt

You all seemed so friendly, and so much fun, only meaning that I wished I had a small group of my own. I hope you all enojyed your stay and I hope you visit soon!!
Don

Its been a really lovely week and I’ve laughed soo much and had such a great week!! Karaoke was so much fun and I thought you all sang your hearts out, and playing the board game was fun and interesting. You all di really well. I really enjoyed mass and the few days you stayed for. Take care
Sinoia

Well what a fun packed few days this was! I really enjoyed myself and I really hope you guys did as well! A big up to my small group, you guys were awesome and I had a real laugh, we had some great chats and you were all really polite and nice. Our pizza that we made was awesome and a really good idea, so big up! The role play we did in mass was also hilarious so well done!

Overall, I had an awesome few days and you were such fun!

Good luck!

Dave

I really loved these couple of days that we spent together…they were awesome and you were just so polite and friendly, and I found it really easy to talk to you all! A big hello to my small group, you were such a laugh to have around! I thought it was great how well you shared in the board game, but most of all I loved our song to advertise how much we loved I-pods! The walk was really nice to and I loved having some time to get to chat to more of you!

Anyway, hope you have a great half term!

Take care,

Steph

This was a great week, I really enjoyed getting to know all of you. I particularly enjoyed the board game and sharing because it was a great chance to see you getting to know each other.

Thanks a lot for a great time.

Matt

I’ve really enjoyed these few days, you had so much energy and just got involved with everything. On the first night I absolutely loved all the songs and sketches for the things you love, especially my groups “Don’t wake me up…” – it was hilarious, and our oxygen role play in mass was great!!! It was an amazing few days and I only wish you could have stayed longer. I hope you allenjoyed it as much as the team did!!
Don

Its been a lovely few days, and I’ve really enjoyed chatting to you all at meal times and seeing all your hard work and efforts at mass and in morning prayes. It was great getting to know you all. Take care.
Sinoia

This has been such a relaxed and chilled out weekend, and it has been thoroughly enjoyable! You were all just so friendly and easy to chat to and it was great to see some familiar faces, as well as meeting many other lovely people!

A big hello to my small group ‘Squirt the Yellow chicken with Cillet Bang whilst eating tadpoles.’ You worked really hard in everything that we had to do and I thought you did especially well on our morning prayer which was dead good. I was so impressed with how you just came up with it all yourselves so well done!

Mass on Saturday was awesome, all the roleplays were really funny!

Anyway, good luck with your GCSE’s, I hope everything goes well for you!

Take care,

Steph

Well guys for saying it was the first time there was an upper school split retreat it was amazing to see how you all got on with each other! The way you went for the activity on the first night was really good to see as you just threw yourselves straight into the swing of things.

It was great to see old faces both staff and students from the Year 11 trip, and awesome to hear how you guys were getting on, not forgetting; ‘a bit of banter.’ It was also well good to meet new people and get to know you guys over the weekend.

Mass was a great celebration and you definetly impressed our parishioners! It topped off a great day (for the Derby fans amongst us) after listening to the Mighty Rams defeat the lowly Forest! Sorry just had to throw that one in there!

Overall it was a really fun weekend and I loved every minute of it!

Take care,

Dave

I’ve really enjoyed this weekend and only wish you could have all stayed longer! I loved my small group, you were such a great laugh and I loved our role play in mass, it was hilarious!! I hope you all enjoyed the weekend just as much as I did and I hope to see some of you soon!!

Don

Easy guys and girls.
It’s been great having my own school up for the weekend, brought back some memories of mine when I was there.
I can’t tell you how much I loved the banter this weekend. It’s all about the banter!
Also, how good was it just to listen to the Derby Forest game?!?! I was LOVING it…not just because of the perfect outcome.
I hope you all visit soon.

Peace

Joe

This weekend has been brilliant; it has been great seeing old and new faces. Big shout-out to my small group ‘The Cosmos Cronies’ you guys were sound, very chilled out and relaxed but got down and made the best of this weekend.

Really wish that you guys could have stayed abit longer so we could get to know you a bit better!

Anyways I hope to see you all up here again soon.

Conor

Fairtrade is a people’s movement for change that aims to tip the balance of trade in favour of poor producers. We all need Fairtrade more than ever and we all have the power to create positive change for people and planet.

Here at the Briars, we feel very passionately about trading justice so have lots of Fairtrade activities happening over the coming days. In the tuck shop, we have decided to get rid of a chocolate bar in order to make room for more Fairtrade produce. However, the problem is that we can’t decide which chocolate bar to get rid of so we need your help! Which chocolate bar is passed it’s sell-by-date? Which choc is for the chop? Which bar has bitten off more than it can chew?

Has the Dairy Milk gone sour? Has the Boost ran out of fuel? Is it time for the Buttons to pop off? Should the Curly Wurly slide off the shelf? Has the Ripple stopped making waves? Does the Galaxy need to go far, far away?

Please post your views, they will be counted along with our in-house poll. Watch this space for the result.

The youth service is leading a group on the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes for Catholic young people not in Catholic Education or whose Catholic school is not already taking a group. We will be traveling by coach along with the other school groups from the diocese and staying with them in Lourdes.

If you are 16 – 18 on the 19^th July this year (just left Year 11, in 6^th form or just left 6^th form) then download the letters and forms here for details on how to be part of the group. For more details contact Fr Joe on 01773 852044 fr.joe@ndcys.com.

Cover Letter PDF Code of Conduct PDF Consent Form PDF

The youth service is leading a group on the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes for Catholic young people not in Catholic Education or whose Catholic school is not already taking a group. We will be traveling by coach along with the other school groups from the diocese and staying with them in Lourdes. If you are 16 – 18 on the 19^th July this year (just left Year 11, in 6^th form or just left 6^th form) then download the letters and forms here for details on how to be part of the group. For more details contact Fr Joe on 01773 852044 fr.joe@ndcys.com.

Cover Letter PDF Code of Conduct PDF Consent Form PDF

So today is the last day, and it has gone so quickly. Our final group were the year 8′s and i tell you what, the best singers were saved until last. this morning we lifted the roof with the energy and enthusiasm of everbody, it really did send our mission week out with a bang.
However our day started with all the parts of our school body coming together in assembly and rounding it all off with an awesome drum roll and some amazing dancing/singing/having fun with go out in the world.

With the final day begining we really kicked off in style and were on a high before lunch, after lunch we took the mood back down to finish off the week with our final liturgy and everything seemed to just fit in.

I think we can say we have enjoyed this week just as much as everybody else and we really can’t wait to start planning Scotland, time to go home and time to get thinking!

We’re sat here eating properly for the first time today and we still don’t think it has sunk it yet how amazing our celebration was tonight. 4 priest, 400 people, 7 musicians, all many parts connected in one body, for one awesome night. For us on stage to watch all those faces just enjoying themselves and loving being with people who think and feel the same and just enjoying themselves fully in the drama, prayers and songs, it is an awesome sight, in the true sense of the word, it just leaves us speechless.

There are so many thank yous to be said, for all those people who made the night so special and we would love to thank you all by name and probably will do when we see you next but just so everyone knows our appreciation, we really couldn’t of done it without you (and for the lads who did our tech, just because you didnt get mentioned at the end doesn’t mean you weren’t amazing).

Its time for Reach4  to sign off for tonight and we will see you tommorow.

Today we weren’t even in school we ventured out to the auditorium and had a great fourth day with the year 6′s of st. Joseph’s and st. Mary’s we were also joined by the year 7′s from st. Mary’s high school,so with just us guys we nearly filled the place or it felt like that with all the energy.

We had a fun day painting the face of Jesus with our thumbs,creating a giant body and drawing ourselves.

Umfortunatly they had to leave because we are setting up for mass and getting our band all checked and easy to roll we cannot wait to see thou guys here with us.