CAFOD Young Leadership Training Program
18th October 2022
On Wednesday 5th October 2022 12 pupils in Year 13 attended their graduation ceremony for their CAFOD YLT course at Amigo Hall at St George’s Cathedral. The pupils have been signed up to this course since November 2021 and whilst it got off to a shaky start being all on Zoom, they persevered to showcase their amazing leadership skills.
It was in January 2022 when they first came up with the idea of a summer festival and whilst time ran away from us, they were finally able to put on their festival for St Michael’s Day. Their idea was simple; fun, games and activities for all and any proceeds were to go to CAFOD’s Step Up To The Plate Campaign. This campaign was close to their hearts, as at their training day in May 2021 they got to see the hard work CAFOD does to ensure global food equality and where as one world we are failing.
During the day itself, the Year 13s (then Year 12) mingled with pupils from other schools, engaged in hearty debates and activities to explore the great work CAFOD does. One thing they took away from the day was the idea of teaching younger pupils all about the CAFOD Step Up To The Plate Campaign, and through much meticulous organisation, the pupils of the Sixth Form Chaplaincy in totality delivered lessons to all classes in Year 7 and Year 8 across one week in June in RE lessons.
CAFOD kindly provided the lessons we adapted and Miss Casey arranged the resources. The activities were designed to make the pupils in KS3 think about the fairness of food in the world and the final task was to write a message to the government to explain the need to overcome injustice in food worldwide. The representatives from CAFOD were completely amazed with the work our pupils had done and even shared their work at national conferences the next day, showcasing just how brilliant our St Michael’s pupils are!!
It has been a delight to watch them grow over the year and take part in so many activities and become outstanding leaders, and now they hand the mantle over to the Year 12s as the Year 13s focus on their A Levels and University applications.
