Year 7 & 8 visit Winchester Cathedral
On Friday 15th March, 42 students from Year 7 & 8 journeyed to Winchester Cathedral as part of a Religious Studies trip.
The students spent their visit between two different sessions, one was a guided tour of the Cathedral, learning about its importance in history and in Christianity, including links to the dissolution of the monasteries and Henry 8th. The students learnt about the geography of the land the Cathedral is built on and the issues that causes.
The other session focused on learning about the lives of the monks who used to live in the Cathedral. Students got to dress as monks to experience how they lived; lead a procession outside the Cathedral, as well as practise the sign language that the monks used to keep up their vow of silence and still be able to communicate.
After a stop for lunch and a visit to the cathedral gift shop, they finished the day with a question-and-answer session with the Reverend Canon Missioner Tess. The students could ask any question they wanted and grilled Rev Tess on many topics, asking questions such as:
- What is it like being a Christian?
- What do you do as a priest?
- Does God have a certain gender?
As always, our students behaved impeccably, asking brilliant questions and appreciating and respecting this impressive place of worship. Staff and volunteers at the Cathedral commented on how brilliantly behaved and well-mannered all our students were during our visit.
Student comments:
"My favourite part of the trip was acting like monks as it was very factual, but it was also a fun way to do it. As well as that, it was great getting all our questions answered from a Christian’s point of view. It was a great experience overall, not just because of our fun and entertaining day, but the people there, students, teachers, and workers, were all very kind." - Laiken
"My experience at the Cathedral was amazing. We first went into the monk workshop, and we all watched a video about what monks did and the jobs they had to do. Next, we put special robes on that monks would wear, and we used sign language to ask for food. After that, we walked around the front lawn in our robes. I had a special job where I had to hold the cross at the front of the line. Then, we had a tour round the main Cathedral, which was massive and had many holy items and places. My favourite part was when we got shown the high altar. It was the part of the Cathedral where you would perform holy communions (which had lots of statues on the wall, including Jesus on the cross). My least favourite part of it was nothing as I had a great time. I hope to go again. I thank the teachers for this opportunity and I would like to go to lots of other holy, religious places." - Harry
"The trip was amazing. I would love to do it again. The tour guides were sweet and funny. Our members of staff were great, fun and entertaining, and it was such a fun trip. It was also so interesting to know about what had occurred there in the past - it was all so much fun and would be fabulous to do again." - Bella