Mary Ward Day 2010 | Loreto College

Recently all students and staff took part in Mary Ward day: a chance to try something new and different and celebrate the values of the Loreto Sisters. Each activity gave an insight into one or more of the five gospel values of freedom, justice, truth, sincerity, and joy associated with Loreto founder Mary Ward

Here members of Loreto’s Journalism Club give their thoughts and impressions of their day.

Jake Perry-Gardner signed up for the army-style challenge the Krypton Factor

We ventured outside college to find the football pitch had been modified with planks of wood, bundles of blue rope and a khaki army net held up by 6 traffic cones. A marvel for the young energised mind just fed on 6 bottles of water, 4 bottles of energy drink, 2 sandwiches and a Halloween night’s equivalent of sweets.

Luckily the weather had bloomed to a chilly sun. Our group gathered into a circle with coach, James, in the centre, glaring at us. His first order was to run in a circle until our lungs were shrivelled, the second to do press-ups until our arms turned into worn out leather. We were an unpleasing sight for James: “I’ve never seen a lazier bunch of young adults!” he yelled and ordered us into pairs.

Pairing myself with Sam Massey-Edwards, a personal friend of mine, we then played a game of tag. This, to our horror, was not the fun ‘playground’ version of tag. In this version we had to run back and forth across half a mile, tag our team-mate and wait with legs shaking with exhaustion until they returned and it was time to run again.

After a five-minute break of water and orange power drink, we returned to the field with barely enough oxygen in our bodies to support a mouse. The next activity was ‘wood walking’ where we had to travel across half a football pitch with nothing but two planks of wood and eight sets of rope. Sounds easy right? Wrong! We were not allowed to touch the grass until we crossed the finish line or else we had to do twenty push-ups each!

Allying myself with Sam, Miranda Estevez-Baker and a third team-mate who, like me, is called Jake, we created a raft connected to our feet. Then by using a system of ‘left’ ‘right’ ‘left’ ‘right’ we reached the finish line in first place. Waiting for the rest of the group to finish we were able to catch our breath before the final full shake-down of the field.

In the same teams we raced across the course hurling ourselves under nets and dodging pikes with each group chasing the group which set out before them. My team was the only team to catch up to the previous team: a second victory. It was satisfying and amusing to see the last team having to do the course over again as a penalty.

With a bottle of water and a pick-me-up snack we returned to college for a well-earned lunch, after which we were ordered to meet outside the Leisure Centre for the final course of the day: Self Defence.

The two-hour lesson was both terrifying and rewarding; for the first hour students practiced defence against the coaches and we all failed to disarm these trained warriors. For the second hour we practiced on each other and after bruised arms, shaken skulls and swollen legs we were congratulated for completing one of the hardest courses in the country.

Naomi Gaskin came face to face with plenty of primates at Trentham Monkey Forest and Gardens

Monkeys have got to be the funniest creatures out there. Only Monkeys could have such entertaining offspring so willingly put on a gymnastics show to entertain their visitors! One adorable youngster won over everyone with her climbing, swinging and back flips. I found myself in hysterical laughter as she jumped and fell again and again.

But the Trentham Forest does more than show you how cute these primates are. There are signs and friendly staff to tell you anything you could wish to know about these creatures including a poster of the monkeys facial expressions. I thought I’d seen a yawning monkey, only to find out later that they were actually threatening me! Scary stuff, as the adults were almost as tall as me, and look a lot stronger!

Alcione D’Jalo tried the Walking in Other People’s Shoes

This was very inspirational day for me because I learnt about other people and their culture. Walking in Other People’s Shoes was about learning about the poverty that some people have to cope with.

The day raised my awareness about asylum seekers through several activities. Some people move to seek asylum in countries, such as the UK to find a peaceful life, and yet we learnt they are still discriminated against.

We saw a film about asylum seekers who live in the UK and how they cope with everyday life. It was interesting to hear the truth about asylum seekers and not what the media tells us about them. We also learnt about where asylum seekers come from. Most asylum seekers come from Iraq, Iran and Zimbabwe as these are countries in which people have few or no human rights.

Later we literally were put in other people’s shoes as we had to produce shoes using paper. We worked in groups to produce our shoes which we then ‘sold’ at a ‘market’ to earn a living. We used brand names such as Nike, Adidas and Converse to make our shoes more valuable as the better quality the shoes, the more money they would make at the market. Although, this was a creative and enjoyable activity we still learnt about how some people do not have a fair and equal chance in life.

Aminah Mahmood got to box up her memories

I know everyone in the college wants to go out to explore places in different parts of England for Mary Ward day, but I decided to do the memory box activity to create something I could take along with me and look back at my college days. It turned out to be a brilliant, special day and also the best day of my life.

During the day we made boxes that we could put pictures of our family in. To start off with in the morning we just took things slowly choosing 5 different coloured cards for our four layers in our box. I thought we would be getting a ready-made box but no, we had to make it from scratch and that was when the fun began. We had to measure the cards and turn them into boxes, it was interesting because we had no templates, and we had to use our own mathematical skills to measure the cards properly.

Decorating my gorgeous memory box was probably the most exciting and fun part of the day. I was so into making my box that I didn’t realise that I ran out of time, so I decided to take it home and finish it.

This memory box isn’t just an ordinary box with pictures stuck on it, but it has different layers of cards with memories and pictures of my family. It had all my love and hard work in it which is not usually we get a chance to do it in our daily life, and it is something that I can look back at in 10 years time and see what I looked like and have a great laugh about it.

I thank Loreto College for organising an activity like this, where we could put our love into and our artistic skills to create something really special.

Eleanor Layhe got spooked in Chester

After a wander round the beautiful centre of Chester we were surprised to find ourselves on a guided ghost walk, unravelling the stories of the inexplicable happenings in the spookiest parts of the city. A rather foreboding looking tour

guide began to guide us round, telling us spine-chilling stories and pointing out the streets and corners where the infamous ghosts of the city have reportedly been sighted.

Participants at the end of the day were asked to evaluate the experience, to ensure everyone enjoyed it. The day in all was well organised and something that I’m sure many students will be unable to forget!

Sinéad Doherty also went to Chester

It has been said that there are many ghosts throughout the city of Chester including a poltergeist named Sarah who even haunts Thorntons (which you can’t blame her for). After being shown all the haunted spots where people have claimed they have had encounters with the life beyond the grave we could not help but wonder is there such thing as ghosts?

Zahra Al Amiry visited the beautiful city of York.

For a fairly compact city York was surprisingly easy to get lost in. It took us a while to find the York Dungeon and when we got there my friends and I were led into an operation room. We met a character called ‘the devil’ and as he was talking he specifically picked me to go in first to a room which I didn’t know was full of mirrors. I didn’t know what was a mirror and what wasn’t and so walked into a mirror face on...

York Castle Museum had a pleasant atmosphere and had good prices for students; it had different eras of time teaching people of all ages new things. It showed you what it was like to walk down a main road in Victorian times. This was very interesting to experience.

As we walked around York we noticed an abnormal amount of geese, which in my mind was scarier than the dungeons. But thankfully the “unofficial guards of York” weren’t too irked by our presence.

Kornelia Bala also visited York.

October 21st was a beautiful day in York. While some people went shopping or sightseeing, I and a group of friends headed for a scare at the York Dungeons, advertised as "2000 years of Dark History". Although it wasn’t quite as bone-chilling as we had hoped, some of the actors did a nice job of creeping us out just by getting a little too close.

Not having much time afterwards, we walked along the pretty medieval street of the Shambles before grabbing some lunch and heading back to the coaches. I've been to York before and I enjoyed revisiting the charming cobbled streets, quaint shops and the magnificent York Minster.

Breeze Wozencroft went to the Imperial War Museum at Salford Quays

From ammunition to spitfires my Mary Ward Day gave me a lifelike wartime experience of the days my grandparents lived through by seeing the clothes and the ration books I’ve heard my grandad speak so much about.

After lunch we were watched the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas which tells the story of a small boy who is the son of a Nazi commandant at a concentration camp, who makes friends with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence. We also saw Saving Private Ryan which is an insightful but gruesome film conveying the real horrors of war.

This educating experience left me with a real insight into the War days and those it affected.

Saira Ahmed honed her writing skills at Meet the Experts.

Two talented poets and a journalist visited Loreto College for the Mary Ward Meet the Experts activity to teach students how to make writing fun and to share their passion. They definitely succeeded; the day consisted of interactive workshops in which the experts shared their knowledge with us.

One of the poets asked us to try to write our own poetry, we were told to choose one of ten absurd scenarios and write about how we would feel in the situation. One of the scenarios was waking up ten years younger. This exercise definitely took some imagination but was refreshing compared to conventional types of poetry

The workshops were helpful and inspiring and many people had lots of ideas to contribute. Everyone involved clearly enjoyed themselves and found that they were inspired to put pen to paper.

Students also had the opportunity to get involved in many other activities including:

5-aside Football

A Photography Competition at Tatton Park

Circus Skills

Computer Game Morality

Cycling

eMary Ward

Music, Art and Permaculture