Year 5/6 visit to the Jesuit Centre in London

What a privilege it was to accompany 13 year 5 and 6 children on a trip to the Jesuit Mission of Hope in London to meet with ambassadors from other Jesuit schools across the country and Jesuit partners from across the world on World Earth Day.

Despite 4.45am alarm clocks, the children remained bright, cheerful, focussed and eloquent throughout and we could not have been prouder of them all.

We met at Preston station at 6.30 am and boarded the train to London. With tube strikes in force, the walk to the Jesuit centre in Mayfair didn't phase us and we arrived in plenty of time. The day was inspiring with speakers and partners from Madagascar, Guyana, India and South Sudan. The mature and thoughtful contributions that our children made during the workshops and the mass in the beautiful chapel, impressed all who attended. The children's confidence grew throughout the group activities and we all made a pledge to work as hard as we can in different ways to save our beautiful world. Our ambassadors will feed back to the rest of the school soon.

Once the Mission of Hope had ended and we'd bid farewell to our new friends from other British schools and other parts of the world, it was time to face the rush hour tube. We reached Euston station in plenty of time to enjoy a drink and snack in the sunshine, (much to the amusement of the resident pigeons), before boarding the 18.30 train back to Preston. After two hours of excited chatter and picnic teas, we arrived safely back to our families for a well earned night's sleep.

What a fabulous day!