Sabbatical Experience 

The Sabbatical experience has provided a quality opportunity for personal prayer and reflection. 

It has been a very positive experience giving me time and space to reflect on my own personal journey through life as well as being professionally uplifting. 

The opportunity to discuss and share good practice with colleagues as well as visiting other schools has been invaluable. The support and encouragement of the group has been tremendous and I’m sure that the friendships made will be long lasting. 

The last three weeks have affirmed, invigorated and totally refreshed me and I look forward to the future challenges of next term.  

On my return to school I hope to: 

v                 Further develop spirituality with staff and children throughout the school and create a ‘Quiet Garden’.

v                 Explore the area of Emotional Intelligence and develop and implement a policy and structured programme for ‘Gifted and Talented’. 

Elaine White – St Mary & St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

In 18years as a Headteacher this has been the most significant experience I have had. It has given me the opportunity for spiritual, physical and intellectual refreshment. It has deepened my understanding of the nature of Catholic Education and provided me with support mechanisms to take our children forward in the 21^st Century. 

Marie Spedding – St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School 

Sabbatical Experience June/July 2005 

This Sabbatical experience has been significant for me – the first time in a very, very long time that I have truly taken time out to reflect on what I am doing and why.  I was amazed that I did do this and that I avoided filling “free” time with junk that always and continually just has to be done.  I used this time to read, to pick the kids up from school, to consider what next, to rejoice in the ordinary. 

What have I come out of this experience feeling? 

v     What a great job I’ve got!  It really is a privilege to work alongside parents in the education and formation of their children. 

v     Confident!?  Spending time visiting other schools and enjoying the company of others with the same vocation has brought about the realisation that I can do it and in fact I’m not doing that badly at all. 

v     Courage!  I feel much more secure in my conviction that the most important aspects of the work I do can’t be measured.  When a child is too sad, too frightened, too confused to learn the quality of care, encouragement and relationships that surround her are the only things that matter and you simply have to be there to see and understand that.   

The results of this work will only truly be seen in years and maybe many years to come. I would recommend this experience to anyone; we need to take greater care of our staff and ourselves. 

Fiona Rigby

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

It has been absolutely wonderful.  

It has been a privilege. I feel refreshed and I am looking forward to returning to school. I have picked up some good ideas which I will share with the staff, children and governors in September. 

I will find ways of encouraging others to take part in Sabbaticals in some form in the future. 

I really appreciate the opportunity I have been given. 

Peter Thompson – St Stephen’s Catholic Primary School

SABBATICAL 2005 

I think the two quotes from the Sabbatical Journal of Monday 27^th June are highly indicative of what Sabbatical has meant to me. 

‘Be still and know that I am God’. Psalm 46: 10 

Also from Matthew 8: 18-22 

‘When Jesus saw the great crowds all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side’. 

Sabbatical had given me quality time ‘to be still’ without any feeling of guilt. It has been within that stillness that I have found time for personal evaluation and reflective answers to many questions. I have managed to slow down the spinning educational carousel that is my life, sufficiently, to step off and ‘leave for the other side’, even if only for a short while. 

David Adam tells us in Border Lands ‘Throughout our lives we will again and again be offered new experiences, new chances for change, and renewal. For all of us there will be new people to encounter and new places to visit……We should make sure that our life has a good inflow and is not ‘all on the ebb’. 

The sabbatical experience has offered me everything in the quote from David Adam and also the opportunity to realign my personal life’s direction and reassurance for the future. 

Kevin Naughton

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

Working in a rather isolated Catholic school I welcomed the opportunity to get to know other Catholic headteachers. It is very important that this takes place away from the day to day stress of running a school, and in my own case, teaching a class. It was amazing the way my own thoughts and feelings about the way our school should be going was supported and developed by the input during the residential element, the reading from the books provided for loan, the school visits, and the vital opportunity to share, discuss and reflect with colleagues on the residential and pilgrimage days. By the end of the three weeks a whole variety of ideas were forming into a coherent strategy for forward progress. 

Terry Starr – All Saints Catholic Primary School.

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

“Be silent before God and let him mould you.

 Keep still and he will mould you to the right shape” Martin Luther 

The visits to several monasteries, the insight we have been given to the contemplative way of life, have hopefully rubbed off on us. We hope that we will be able to take back with us, on our return to our respective schools, some of the tranquillity and inner peace we have gained. It is politically correct now, to speak of work/life balance in our modern world with its ever-changing, ever busy pace. 

We were fortunate to be given time to withdraw, restore and renew our intellectual, emotional and spiritual balance. 

I would like to thank the school community for giving me this opportunity to learn, to share good practice and to network with colleagues from four Diocese and for their recognition that this would benefit not only myself but also the school. 

Anne Brighton – St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary School

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

The whole sabbatical experience has been fabulous. It has given me the opportunity as a Catholic leader to refuel. There has been such opportunity for real quality prayerful reflections and a chance for personal self-review. The companionship of colleagues and their shared ideas and perspectives have been both supportive and enhancing. Quality input from speakers has provoked thought and development for the future. 

I have a great deal to take back to school – a prayer garden project to work on; implementation of some of the good ideas I have picked up; continued development of emotional literacy and much, much more. I feel I will keep dipping into my accumulated ideas bank for a long time to come. 

Most of all I have learnt that time out is good and necessary for us to be able to reflect on what is important in our lives and our work. 

Margaret Stichbury – St Malachy’s Catholic Primary School

Sabbatical 2005 

The experience of sabbatical has been one of sharing, one of collaborating and one of bonding together as a group, coming from diverse but united backgrounds, rooted together in the mission of Christ and creating a culture of unity in diversity. 

Janet Hutton

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

The Sabbatical experience has offered the opportunity to reflect upon the school community, its needs and future direction. 

This special time has allowed me to step back from the very real needs of day to day life in school and with skilled directors look at developing an area of school life that will  make an impact on the spiritual development of our school. 

I have valued the wonderful experience of sharing with colleague headteachers an experience that has been rooted in our Faith, secure in its confidentiality and challenging in its requirements. 

I wish the team well in their future Sabbatical projects, a very necessary part of our school life.

Reg Stichbury – St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School

The Sabbatical Experience 2005 

The personal experience of Sabbatical has been entirely positive, uplifting and joyous. In many ways it has been a ‘different’ world, a world that allows time and space to develop personally and as part of a unique group. 

The Sabbatical Experience has allowed me to consider and rejoice in my past, reflect on the present and look forward to the future. 

My most sincere thanks to all those involved in facilitating such a process - their thoughtfulness and integrity has not gone unnoticed. I wouldn’t of missed it for the world. 

Stephen Owen – Immaculate Conception Catholic Primary School

Sabbatical Experience 2005 

“Oh to be alive in such an age where miracles are everywhere and every inch of common air throbs a tremendous prophecy of greater marvels yet to be”. Walt Whitman. 

I feel spiritually renewed having had time for quiet contemplation and shared experiences. 

I feel that there are miracles waiting to be unleashed as a result of having this three week period of precious time. Emotionally, I feel calmer and less stressed and have had my faith re-invigorated. I have had the opportunity to examine practice in the calm clear moments of standing back and looking in from the outside, based on information and input both from Frank and Theresa and from personal reading.  

I would like to thank everyone who has made this possible for me to benefit from sharing good practice and for their recognition that these opportunities benefit us all. 

Angela Gawthorpe – St Mark’s Catholic Primary School