Who are we?

The Animate Team are a group of young people who offer a year or more of their life to live in community and to work with young people in the Diocese.

High Schools

Day Retreats

A day retreat at Lowe House allows young people to enter a new environment away from their school and classroom.

A day retreat is a day held here at Lowe House for groups of up to 60. The team will work with the group from your school on any theme of your choosing. The team will explore your theme through a tailor made day of activities, workshops and personal witness.

A day retreat at Lowe House is ideal to allow young people to mix with each other in a different setting to the ones in which they are familiar. We can also make use of the space we have in the house and garden, and we can use resources that could not be used in a school environment.

A day retreat at Lowe House is a retreat in the dictionary sense of taking a step back from everyday life – it is often commented upon that staff see a different side of young people when they see them on retreat away from school.

A day retreat at Lowe House is what we would recommend to any school or parish group that might want to allow their young people to take a step back from everyday life and think about their lives and their relationship with God and with each other.

Price

At Lowe House: £6.00 per pupil (no fee for use of Hall)

Mission Days

A mission day is a day (or days) held in your school. This option is popular for schools that would find it difficult to get to Lowe House for a day retreat: either because of travel or year group sizes.

With a mission day we would visit the school and work with a group of young people in the morning and another group of young people in the afternoon.

Depending on year group size this might be half a year in the morning and other half in the afternoon; or a quarter of the year group and so spread over two days. In order for the day(s) to be as engaging as possible for the young people involved we would recommend that the group size we would work with should be around 60 young people.

These sessions would be a combination of whole group activities and smaller group work.

As school timetables vary, how this day would run would also vary. Some schools would have us work with the half/quarter year for two periods and the other half/quarter year for two periods and have the whole/half year together for Mass or a service at the end of the day.

Another option might be to have the larger group together at the start for an opening session and then split them up for the remainder of the day.

Other schools might have us simply work with a group of 60 twice and if there is a spare period in the day to ask us to work with a specific group for an hour: chaplaincy, prefects, staff, FIA groups.

We can talk you through the best options that would seem to fit with your own school and the time you have available.

If you would like pupils to be off timetable for a full day we are also able to provide schools with a variety of easy to use resources and material that staff can use on the mission day when pupils are not with the Animate Team. For example, resources to help with preparation for a year group Mass, material to allow young people to reflect on their own lives, or more dynamic resources to explore faith through games and sport.

It is important to note, though, that whilst there are often very good reasons to have a mission day rather than a day retreat we would always recommend having a day retreat away from school. We always appreciate that a number of factors such as cost, transport, staffing, year sizes, timetabling and any number of other issues might make a mission day more appealing the best experience for the young people involved would always be to be away from the normal life and spaces and distractions of the school.

Price – £600 set fee for the day (inc. resources and transport)

Mission Week

A mission week is a great opportunity for the whole school to come together over the course of a week to reflect on what is important in the life of the school.

A school may use a mission week to start a new mission statement, or to reinvigorate their existing mission statement. A school may have an anniversary that they wish to celebrate, or the school may wish to mark an event in the life of the wider Church by having a mission week.

A mission week is not to be taken lightly. It is often good practice to build up to a mission week with an existing retreat programme.

Similarly, a mission week at its best will include interaction with parishes and feeder primary schools.

Work on a mission week will often begin six months before the actual week, and can continue after the week for many months – and even years.

Staff are also asked to be included in a mission week by preparing lessons based on the mission theme that will be delivered during the week. We come into school before the mission to assist staff with any theme-based lesson planning.

We will come into the school and work with all available years through stage presentations; including dramas, music and personal testimony.

We would also be able to work with specific groups, such as the chaplaincy group, prefect group, staff groups etc. in focused workshops.

A mission week would include preparation time with pupils and staff in the months leading up to the week, and post mission week evaluation.

A mission week can be the catalyst for new initiatives within the school or deepen the longstanding ethos and mission of the school.

Price – £4,000 (Full week Mon – Fri, including all pre-mission preparation)

Primary Schools

Unfortunately we are unable to offer mission days and mission weeks to primary schools.

Animate was founded as a peer ministry team and so can only work with year 6 groups in primary schools.

Day Retreat

We are able to work with Year 6 in a day themed around one of these two areas:

New Beginnings 

The focus of this day will be reminding the young people about the opportunities and challenges that will arise as they embark on their new beginning at High School. We will remind them that their will be support from friends and staff at their new school. And also that God is always there with them on their journey in life.

This theme may be appropriate for a school that wishes for its young people to think about the journey they will shortly embark upon as they start a new chapter of their lives.

Caring For Others

We will use activities that will allow the young people to think about their local community at school and the larger communities of which they are a part. We will think about how they can care for others in those different communities and set an example for others to follow.

This day retreat theme would be appropriate for those schools who wish for their young people to learn how to respect each other and think about the needs of others before their own.  

Primary School (£5.00 per pupil)

For more information or enquiries please contact the team office on 01744 740463 or send an email to admin@animateyouth.co.uk.