On Wednesday 19th October the whole timetable was collapsed and student across all year groups took part in a range of activities.
Year 7 – Retreat
The Y7 students spent the day on retreat on Wednesday. The theme for the retreat was community. On the day we explored how each of us are individuals and have our own strengths and talents, but when we combine all of these things together we are so much stronger, we can support each other and bring out the best in each other. The day finished with an amazing liturgy with songs that students had learnt throughout the day. It was lovely to see the students so engaged with faith and reflection.
Year 8 – PSHE Day: Relationships
Our Y8 students spent the day looking at how we can foster healthy relationships with ourselves and with each other. This included looking at body confidence. We felt this was particularly important because a recent study from the mental health foundation showed that 35% of the 11-16 year olds they surveyed said their body image causes them to worry either always or often. For this session we used Dove’s self esteem resources which you can access on their website by clicking here
Year 9 – RSE Morning
On Wednesday morning the Y9 students took part in 3 workshops. 2 of these workshops were about educating them further on sexual harassment. This included looking in more detail at what sexual harassment is but most importantly the importance of not being a bystander and just letting sexual harassment happen if they see it. The 3rd session followed on from some work that they started last year on body confidence and looked at the dangers of comparing our body to other people and trying to change the way we talk about our body.
The afternoon was centred around theme of wellbeing, with students able to opt in to activities from Table Tennis to Christmas Bauble making!
Year 10 – Careers
The Y10 students spent the day looking ahead to future careers that they are interested in. This included sessions on the local labour market in South Yorkshire and how careers have changed in recent history. They also looked at financial education including how to read wage slips and how taxes work.
Year 11 – Post 16 Taster Sessions
Y11 students had a day of taster sessions. This gave an opportunity to consider the kinds of subjects they may wish to study after GCSEs. There was also a session run by Sheffield College exploring Post 16 options away from Notre Dame.
Year 12 and Year 13 – Life after Sixth Form
This valuable break in their regular timetable gave students in Y12 and Y13 the opportunity to focus on University and other options beyond sixth form. Y12 logged onto ‘Unifrog’ for the first time and started their journey in exploring options, places, courses etc. Y13 were able to book one-to-one appointments with the sixth form team to get their UCAS applications ready to send!