Year 8 Retreat LIVE (Pics)

Here are the first pictures to come out of the Year 8 Anne Line retreat to the Youth Village. We'll have more to bring you later on but wanted to keep you updated on our live blog for this evening.

Year 8 Retreat LIVE!

Hello and welcome to our Mission Blog live from the 8 Anne Line retreat! We've enjoyed a fun packed day so far taking part in loads of activities and I've got a couple of the girls here to tell you what they think about the day so far....

This is Abbie Frain and Louise Latimer reporting on the retreat. It has been an action packed stay at the youth village where there was lots of activites and shows to watch and join in with. On this retreat we also took part in bushtucker trial, pringle challenge and made a tee-shirt on our team name and logo which was a very fun activity and we would love to return to the youth village and stay again!

The Wave

Inspired by words from Archbishops Vincent Nichols and Rowan Williams, 8 young people from Hartlepool took to the streets of London as part of a protest about the effects of climate change on the poorest of the poor. Armed with placards and blue face paint, they spoke out for those who do not have a voice. Are our leaders at this week’s UN climate summit in Copenhagen listening? We shall see.

Year 8 Retreats

Over the next two weeks Year 8 will be taking part in their retreat. Each House will visit the Youth Village and enjoy two days working with YMT. The retreats are taking place as follows:

St John Boste
Monday 30th November - Tuesday 1st December

St Margaret Clitherow
Monday 7th December - Tuesday 8th December

Blessed John Ingram
Tuesday 8th December - Wednesday 9th December

St Anne Line
Wednesday 9th December - Thursday 10th December

St Thomas More
Thursday 10th December - Friday 11th December

Hands of Prayer

During the Youth Sunday celebration at St Mary's Church the congregation were invited to come forward and write on the banner. This had been made using the hand prints of each student at St Begas Primary School and each adult was asked to write a 'hope' for the young people beside a hand print. Here is just a small selection of those thoughts:

Youth Sunday Photos

What a wonderful occassion celebrating the Feast of Christ the King for Youth Sunday 2009 at St Mary's Church. Here are a small selection of photographs from the day.

Creed of Hope

The theme for Youth Sunday 2009 is taken from 1 Timothy 4:10 which is "We have set our hope on the living God". The Diocesan Youth Council have created a special Creed to be read in all parishes across the dioscese today on this theme:

Creed of Hope
I have hope in the love of God, which makes all things new,
I have hope that what I give to the world will make a difference.
I have hope in the Gospel, which challenges us to grow in faith.
I have hope that I can inspire those around me.

We have hope that our Church will always embrace diversity and unity.
We have hope that God binds us into community within our parishes.
We have hope in our own ideals, dreams and plans.
We have hope in God, who calls us into action.
We place our hope in the living God.

Glory be to Him whose power working in us can do
infinitely more that we can ask or imagine.

This is our hope. Amen.

Youth Sunday at St Marys

This Sunday St Mary's Church on the Headland hold a Youth ministered mass to celebrate Youth Sunday 2009. Students from St Begas Primary School and English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College have come together to arrange the celebration so come along and play your part in encouraging the young people of our parish in their Faith.

Mini-Mission Team at St. Cuthbert’s

Following the success of our last visit, the St. Cuthbert’s MMT went back to their old primary school with some more Good News for Y6. This time, we told and talked about the story of Jesus curing the paralysed man lowered through the roof on a stretcher and asked the children to complete the sentence ‘Jesus is...’ based on what they’d heard in the story. We then painted our chosen words onto banners to be presented to the school assembly the next day. Thanks again to Chris and Sheila for coming along and helping us.

Ampleforth Rock

What a group! We asked people to tell us what they have liked best about the whole Mission experience and to do something which represented their best memories. This group took that idea to the extreme and as their favorite memory was of the retreat to Ampleforth they produced this little song for us to enjoy.

Remembrance Service

On Sunday 8th November a group of young people from English Martyrs School helped to set up and deliver a remembrance service at St Cuthberts Church. A selection of poems and letters were read out to the congregation in the packed church by some students whilst others performed in the school orchestra who provided the music during the service.

This was the first event of it's type led by the young people in St Cuthbert's and was seen as a great success by all who attended. Tomorrow, English Martyrs School will stop and observe a 2 minutes silence at 11am as well as each individual class taking part in their own Remembrance Service during registration.

"They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."

St Cuthberts Remembrance Sunday

On Sunday 9th November a group of young people and adults from St Cuthberts Church will be hosting a Remembrance Sunday service. The group have arraged a selection of music, readings and poetry and afterwards you will be able to take a look at some war time photographs in the parish hall next to the church.

The invite to take part is open to everyone so please come along. The service begins at 3pm with tea and coffee served afterwards.

Anne-Marie AKA Susan Boyle

Here it is, the very first video to come out of our weekend at the Youth Village. The one and only, our very own chaplain, Anne-Marie appearing for one night only as.... Susan Boyle!

Put Out Into The Deep

On Friday 16th of October we set off from School for a weekend at the Youth Village looking at how we can carry forward the good work done by the Mission earlier this year. The two days were brilliant with lots of fun being had by all alongside all of the hard work we did on looking towards new events that we can do over the next year.

The Youth Villiage was a lovely place too with nice food and accommodation as well as a Karaoke machine in the boys challet while the girls were just too busy on Facebook chat using the plasma screen in their challet for anything like that! We've got loads of pictures that will be put up soon so keep checking back to see them!

The highlight though had to be Anne-Marie and her one night only never to be seen again performance of Baywatch while dressed as Susan Boyle.... yes we do have a video too!

Feel free to add your comments to this anyone who was there or who would have liked to have been there and let's look forward to putting our plans into action.

Youth Village Retreat

This weekend a group of young people and adults from Hartlepool will be visiting the Youth Village as part of Put Out Into The Deep. The group will have just one aim... to look at how we can carry on all of the good work that was done by the YMT Mission in February.

We are really excited about this mini retreat and hopefully will be able to bring you some news soon of more exciting events to look forward to across the parishes!

Rounders, Parties & Going Home

The third day at Ampleforth and just a general round up of all that we enjoyed during our retreat. Was there a better way to spend the Saturday afternoon than our 20 vs 20 rounders game even with those terrible shouts of 'Foul Ball' every few minutes! Then who could forget our party on the Saturday night with the music quiz and stackers game. These last few days have given us so much fun but also so many memories so hopefully this little video will let you share in those too:

Reflection, Drama & Stations

Here are the highlights from our second day at Ampleforth and just a small sample of what was a jam packed day! Starting with a reflection as a whole group then moving into our smaller groups to put together a drama. One of the highlights of our day though was the stations of the cross where each group took their turn at presenting one of the stations and of course the wonderful 'Team Rock' who carried the rocks for the last stretch of our walk. Take a look here to see the main highlights of the day:

Arrival and Night Prayer

The highlights of our first day at Ampleforth and our shortest one too! We left straight after school on Friday and enjoyed a very hot journey on the coach before sorting out our rooms. After that we were working in groups for a little while and then took part in a beautiful night prayer. Here are just a few of the highlights from our first day:

Ampleforth Retreat

Tomorrow sees Mission Control and loads more young people from the parishes going to Ampleforth on retreat. We've also invited a few adults from the parishes too to take part in what is the first big event since the Mission and we hope to come up with lots of other ideas on how we can work together.

Keep on checking the blog for updates and hopefully we'll have a few videos to bring you too!

Music Department

As promised, here is the long awaited video of the Year 8 music classes enjoying taking part in the EMS Mission 2009:

French Department

This can't be right! These year 8's are having far too much fun to be in school... oh yes, it's as part of the YMT Mission isn't it!

Family Night

After a brilliant mission week with YMT in school this is the night that we had all been building towards. This is when all of our hard work came together and we produced a wonderful evening to celebrate the last week in school and look ahead towards the future and how we can live our own lives to the full. Take a look at our video round up now to enjoy this evening all over again:

Video Roundup - Day 5

The fifth day of our mission and chance for the rest of Year 10 and Year 11 to spend some time in the hall with YMT and again you can see just how much fun they were having in the video. The Hakka workshop in the drama studio with the Year 11 rugby team proved to be a great rehearsal while the Drama group were getting on well with their Family Night practice too. We've also got a brilliant video of the French classes taking part in their Mission lessons which will be coming shortly but there is a little taster of it available here now:

Mission Day 5

8.30 – 8.55
Mass in Chapel

9.00 – 11.00
10X session with YMT

9.00 – 10.00
PE Competitions

9.30 – 10.00
Yr 8 French Song

11.00 – 12.05
PE Competitions

11.15 – 12.15
Hakka workshop with YMT

12.10 – 1.35
LIFE TO THE FULL – Mission Control in the chapel

1.30 – 3.30
11X session with YMT

Video Roundup - Day 4

Day 4 and the rest of Year 7 then Year 8 got their chance to be in the hall with YMT and they certainly threw themselves into every activity! The music department are clearly taking the mission very seriously with some quality mission songs being sung (special video coming soon about that one!) while the RE department are doing a lot of work on how we can each live life to the full. Fr Dermot spoke to the Sixth Form in the hall while the Boys vs Girls netball match was going on in the PE department. You can enjoy some of the action right here in our video roundup:

Mission Day 4

8.45 – 8.55
Morning Prayers in Chapel

9.00 – 11.00
7U session with YMT

10.40 – 11.55
PE Competitions

11.20 – 11.55
RE Presentations

11.15 – 12.15
Sixth Form with YMT

12.00 – 12.30
Netball Competition

12.00 – 1.25
FORGIVE – Mission Control in the chapel

12.45 – 2.00
PE Competitions

1.30 – 3.30
Year 8 session with YMT

Video Roundup - Day 3

Day three and the mission is now well underway in school with so many events taking place. The staff took part in a special prayer led by YMT at last nights staff meeting and we've now got events going on in every subject across the school. More family night rehearsals were underway today with dance and music practices going well at lunch time and after school. It was the chance for Year 10 to enjoy their session with YMT in the hall and Sacred Heart completed a clean sweep in the Boys swimming for Year 8 and Year 9. See our roundup for more day 3 news:

Mission Day 3

8.45 – 8.55
Morning Prayers in Chapel / Staff Briefing

9.00 – 11.00
10U session with YMT

11.15 – 12.15
Music workshop with YMT

12.00 – 1.25
LOVE – Mission Control in the chapel

12.45 – 2.00
PE Competitions

2.15 – 3.30
PE Competitions

1.30 – 3.30
11U session with YMT

Video Roundup - Day 2

The second day of our Mission and YMT arrived in school at last! Miss Parker had the Cheerleaders practicing for the family night and the Inter Parish competitions were in full swing once again seeing St Cuthbert's win the Y9 Boys Football competition whilst Sacred Heart won the Girls 7U and 8U Football competition. The Year 7's were also the first group to enjoy some time in the hall with YMT and this video shows just a little sample of how exciting that was for them!

EMS Mission - Day 2

Day two of the Mission and plenty more to look out for across school:

8.45 – 8.55
Morning Prayers in Chapel

9.00 – 11.00
7U session with YMT

9.10 – 10.25
PE Competitions

10.40 – 11.55
PE Competitions

11.15 – 12.15
Dance workshop with YMT

12.00 – 1.25
LAUGH – Mission Control in the chapel

12.45 – 2.00
Cheerleading Practice

12.45 – 2.00
PE Competitions

1.30 – 3.30
7X session with YMT

2.15 – 3.30
PE Competitions

3.30 – 3.45
Staff Prayer

Video Roundup - Day 1

The day we had finally been waiting for had arrived at last but who could have predicted the snow that we'd get this morning and that YMT would end up getting stuck in Durham! They may not have made it into school today but we still got the Mission started in school with Inter-Parish competitions and special Mission week lessons as well as our very own Mission Control team running a series of events over lunch time in the chapel. Have a look at our video to see a roundup of what has been happening:

EMS Mission - Day 1

Tomorrow is the first day of our Mission so look out for some of these events and tell us what you think about them!

8.45 – 8.55

Morning Prayers in Chapel

9.00 – 11.00

9X is St Annes Hall with YMT

9.10 – 10.25

PE hosting the opening round of Inter-Parish Competitions

12.00 – 1.25

LIVE... Mission Control in the chapel

12.45 – 2.00

PE hosting the second round of Inter-Parish Competitions

1.30 – 3.30

9U in St Annes Hall with YMT

2.15 – 3.30

Living Life to the Full - Oscar Romero (Miss Thompson)

3.30 – 4.30

Family Night Cheerleading Practice

False Start!

Well YMT may be snowed in at Durham but the Mission has still started in school!

Despite the horrendous weather conditions events are going on all across the school and the Inter-Parish competitions are well under way in the PE Department.

Look out for more updates later!

Mission Launch

Tomorrow sees the start of the Mission which we have been planning for over the last year. For those who have taken part in retreats and other sessions with YMT you have had just a small taste of what is to come this week. For those who have never met YMT before, especially the younger students, what a treat you have in store this week with so many wonderful activities to join in with. Finally, for those who remember the last mission week with YMT... well you are getting old now aren't you!

Join in, take part in whatever way that you feel you can and most of all enjoy what is sure to be an excellent and fun experience. Always remember the words in John 10:10... "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" so let's do just that during our very own Mission week.

***NEXT MISSION CONTROL MEETING***

Friday 30th January

Period 5 + 6 in the Chapel

BE THERE!

Youth Ministered Mass - St John Vianney

Mass at St John Vianney's

Take part in the big event happening this weekend with the Youth Ministered mass at St John Vianney's Church in West View.

Join in with preparation on Thursday evening at the church or just turn up on at 9.30AM on Sunday 18th January and help us to celebrate mass together.