This week in our school community: 22 May 2026
...we were blown away with the maturity and emotive intelligence of all of the young people ...
One of the great blessings of being a school Chaplain is having the freedom outside the classroom to organise opportunities for young people that open them up to personal and spiritual encounters. The residential trip for Year 10s to Krakow has been one those opportunities that I knew would bear so much fruit due to the deep faith of the Polish people, the variety of enrichment on offer and, finally, the potential long term impact that visiting Auschwitz can have on personal growth. Throughout our five days in Krakow staff witnessed so much respect shown by your children, a healthy level of inquisition, an openness to culture and engagement in all aspects of the pilgrimage experience. We threw everything at them: long walks, Polish history tours, obstacle course – like climbs up bell towers, harrowing imagery and experiential learning at a concentration camp, then grown up evening meals and night time live music in a Jewish restaurant. The maturity, grace and anticipation they approached it all with, was a pleasure to witness.
Our first day felt never-ending! With a 3.45am start time from St Gregory’s, many students were up from 2.30am onwards and barely got to sleep until nearly 2am the next day (by choice!). Anticipated queues at Krakow Airport passport control weren’t as bad as feared, with waits of 50 minutes due to the new EEA requirements, meaning we were able to get a decent length walking tour of the Jewish area into our afternoon. The addition of our own headsets meant we were able to take a more casual stroll around the city than last time when our tour guides tried to fit in every detail of history and point out even the most mundane of local interests. Between Mrs Cottis, Mr Saunders, Mrs Sarbatta and I we were able to share a perfect mix of history, religion and local knowledge mixed with both humour and seriousness.
Day two began with a visit to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, home to the convent of St Faustina, and the giant modern Basilica named in honour of the great twentieth century Polish Pope, John Paul II. I love taking students along to this place due to the architectural masterpiece of a Church, with all the full length interior stained glass windows depicting a boat sailing on the ocean steered on the outside by a statue of John Paul II. There is a great deal of gothic and baroque influence in the Churches of Krakow, but this building is one of a couple that shows modern places of worship can be places of spiritual encounter. It was moving to see such an experience with one of our students whilst there. The afternoon involved a visit to Parc Wodny, an indoor waterpark full of adrenaline inducing slides, a water volleyball court, playground like equipment submerged in water, jacuzzis and much more that kept everyone entertained for three hours. The less said about Mrs Cottis requiring first aid after her first slide the better!
After dinner around half of the students still felt energetic enough to explore the waterfront and old town at sunset and nighttime. One of our photo competition winners caught the beauty of the riverfront at sundown, the only disappointment was the famous Wawel dragon refused to breathe fire leading to accusations of broken promises to yours truly. Apparently, traipsing them through beautifully lit old streets and detouring to a kebab shop was all the redemption required. Still only a 23,000 step day.
Our third day was undoubtedly the day most of our young people will keep with them for a long time, if not a lifetime. We had to have the earliest of starts to ensure a timely arrival at Auschwitz with passport style security and checks part of the process for tours of the former concentration camp. The first part of our tour began at Auschwitz with it’s infamous ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ gates a foretaste of the camp that took slave labour to despicable levels. Students saw evidence of the way arrivals were dehumanised through removal of all distinguishing features, their name, belongings, torture and near starvation. Many of the exhibits still contain hundreds of thousands of personal belongings that the Nazi’s left behind upon liberation of the camp. After a short break students were then taken five minutes down the road to the malevolent Auschwitz II Birkenau – the death camp were millions of innocent Jews, Romany Gypsies, disabled, gay and others discriminated against were gassed in the chambers. We saw the remnants of one of the gas chambers that hadn’t been completely destroyed and walked through the appalling ‘accommodation’ that those who were worked to death had to live in.
Having seen, heard and connected with so much throughout the visit we were blown away with the maturity and emotive intelligence of all of the young people in our workshops later that day. They reflected on both how it affected them and how they could be beacons of hope and light for the next generation as the final survivors pass away. Whilst there were many more highlights in the remainder of the week, including the Salt Mines, Basilica of St Francis of Assisi, Wawel Cathedral and Castle and more, it was our final evening meal in a Jewish restaurant that provided the fitting end.
We invited students to bring an outfit for a formal meal out and they embraced this. Being able to bring the week to a close in celebration of Jewish culture – food and music – was a joy to see, with many students commenting on how much they enjoyed this. The Klezmer band that entertained us added atmosphere and so much talent to behold. We asked students to reflect on their favourite moments and experiences over the week and a collection of them are shared in this week's newsletter
Mr Robinson
Lay Chaplain
