This week in our school community: 9 May 2025

Retreats at Kintbury

 

Year 9 Kintbury Residential

We were delighted to take a group of our Year 9 students to the Lasallian Retreat centre, St Cassian’s, Kintbury, at the end of April.  Already this year we’ve taken our Year 8s and Year 10s for the Kintbury Experience, with the final opportunity, ‘Lasallian Camp’, coming in July and advertised below.  We were joined on the retreat by Bishop Challinor Catholic Secondary, Basingstoke, a lovely school who we’ve shared the experience with in the past.  Many of our young people formed great new friendships with their students over the course of the four days away after spending time in small groups with them, sharing in activities and, importantly, around the table for meals.  Mrs Kestell, Mrs West and I were particularly impressed with the maturity and honesty the Year 9s showed in times of prayer and reflection, with many of the students even turning up to the staff volunteer team’s own morning prayer. Hopefully, some of these pictures capture the joy and fulfilment of the experience (as opposed to the tiredness by Sunday afternoon waiting around after cancelled trains!). 

Lasallian Camp 2025!

This year’s Lasallian Camp at Kintbury takes place from Friday 4 July to Sunday 6 July and is open to students in Years 7 – 10.  Many of our young people have attended Kintbury, either for the in-house retreats or for this unique weekend open to all Lasallian schools who camp in the grounds of the site and enjoy a fun packed time.  As an associate Lasallian school we are blessed with additional opportunities such as this where we get to link up with the wider Lasallian community. The annual camp brings together young people of all school ages from De La Salle schools across the district of UK, Ireland and Malta for a weekend of fun activities, friendship and reflection on what it means to be a young Lasallian. There is a varied timetable of games, discussion, reflection, challenges and more, making the most of the beautiful manor house and extensive grounds. Students will make lifelong friends from other Lasallian schools whilst sharing an experience that includes camping, bonfire, outdoor adventure activities such as archery, climbing, human table football and much more. You can see pictures and a video of previous camps here:

https://www.thekintburyexperience.com/Lasalliancamp.html.

The cost of the weekend is £110 which includes all activities, a camp T-shirt, wristband, travel, all meals and insurance.

Mr Robinson

Lay Chaplain