On Wednesday, the new Year 7’s had their very first retreat at their new school. Retreats are held each year at Carmel for each year level and the theme for Year 7 is ‘Welcome to a Catholic Mercy School’. The retreat is a great way for the girls to get to know their classmates and to learn more about the Catholic faith of the school and its Core Mercy values. The day began in the hall with a Mass celebrated by Fr Chris Skinner. The girls then broke up into house groups for activities such as scripture role plays, learning about and painting the 5 Core Mercy values Service, Respect, Justice, Care, Compassion and creating prayer journals. Thanks to our Year 13 student leaders, our past students Alexa and Jana, and our Year 7 teachers who all worked to make this a very special event. For lunch the girls all contributed to a shared lunch in the hall that was then followed by activities led by the student House Leaders and finally a meditation to finish off the busy day.

Ciara O’Neill, Head Girl