Annual Schools’ Conference – Educating with Hope in our Hearts & Hands

It was fantastic to re-convene our annual Schools’ Conference on 6-7 October at the Hayes
Conference Centre in Derbyshire.

With all schools represented and having participated in a beautiful opening reflection we were
delighted to open the conference with an address from our friend and guest, Brian Garrone,
Director of Communication and Global Engagement & Executive Officer of EREBB.

Having been in Pope Francis’s company just a few days previously, he was able to give us direct
words from His Holiness who urged us, as a group of Catholic schools to go out and make the
changes necessary in order to respond to the the cry of the Earth and to the cry of the poor.

Our first day continued with input from Brother Brian Bond of ERI and from Paul Turner of
the Ministry of Eco Education who both pushed our schools to react to the urgent need for us all
to address sustainability in a focused, prioritised way. In groups schools shared how they have
reimagined practices, become more resilient and are recovering after the COVID pandemic.

Our evening was spent nurturing our wellbeing with life coaching sessions on the Wheel of Life and
Journaling. Our ‘thought walk’ that evening was a chance to engage with messages that had
been sent to us by EREBB colleagues from across the globe. Hopefully providence allocated
an appropriate message to each delegate; our delegates were encouraged to respond by
email and strike up a new bond across the miles with another Edmund Rice educator who
had taken the time to share their thoughts with us at our gathering.  Finally guests relaxed
and socialised to round off a busy first day of conference.

Day two was focused on our responses; Kavita Das, Principal of St John’s College in
Chandigarh joined us by zoom to explain how their Teacher-Foster Carer scheme works and
how this helps to support a large number of marginalised families and for their children to be
educated at the College. we went on to hear from Jonathan Webster, Principal at St Mary’s Prep
and how the staff their have committed to become a deaf-friendly community in response to one
family’s request to educate their son at this school. The amazing commitment of St Mary’s Prep
staff and the impact this has had on the whole school gave us all very moving and tangible example
of how Education as a Christian Calling, inclusivity and Edmund’s Charism are being lived out
at this wonderful school.

Another fantastic example of how the Eight Essentials are being animated and lived was presented to
us by Patricia Minogue, Assistant Headteacher at Runnymede St Edward’s. The newly created
Magna Carta Awards programme has engaged a huge number of their pupils in living lives of
love and service and in showing their faith by the way that they live. This ambitious scheme
is developing confident leaders who are being encouraged to have Concern for the Whole
Person and to respond to Those in Need. Another inspiring response from our schools was
outlined by Caroline Cirino, Director of Sixth Form at St Joseph’s College. Caroline showed
how their school had responded in a creative and resilient way to COVID’s impact on the
Overseas Immersion programme. St Joseph’s developed a Domestic Immersion replacement
for their sixth formers. The impact on students has been just as profound when they
experienced extreme need more locally in Irish and UK cities. We also heard from St
Anselm’s College students Thomas Jones and Harvey McGrath who spoke stirringly of their
journey to raise awareness of the Climate Crisis in their school and beyond.
Our delegates left with many insights, opportunities to build relationships and also some
challenges; one being to create sustainable schools with a focus on helping biodiversity loss.

A quote from one delegate:

“There was a real sense of the network being ‘alive’ and I felt that impact very positively.”