On the 3rd of April 2025, I along with 9 other students and Ms Seery attended the Le Cheile Trust Student Symposium “Spreading kindness in Le Cheile schools”. We had a very early start to the day with many of us waking at around 5:30 or so, as the bus was to collect us by 6:45 am. To be completely honest, I was unsure to what the day ahead would hold but along with the other students we kept an open mind and saw this day as a fun outing. After close to 4 hours on a bus ride along with a few other accompanying schools we finally arrived at our destination, Knock.The day began with a short talk regarding gratitude, kindness and a reflection on those who inspire us and why. We had a fun sing along as a community of Le Cheile schools and we were all asked, regardless of our faith to take part in some prayers and reflection periods. I found the first talk very interesting and also rather meaningful. This man told us about his dog who meant a lot to him and also inspired him. This dog eventually got cancer and passed away not long after but because of this the owner decided to form an organisation for other dog owners in his local and national community. It may seem confusing to why this was brought up, however I found it truly heartwarming. At this point he asked us certain questions and allowed us the time to discuss with the other students from different schools around us. While it was at first difficult to talk to others I didn’t know, I was able to discuss and talk with people from all parts of Ireland and even different countries. This was really interesting and also was a learning experience for me. Not long after this talk, and introduction was presented to us regarding the day ahead and the activities we would take part in. Each of us had a name tag with a particular colour, which would later be used to separate us into groups along with the other students. I had the colour red, and the first activity I took part in was a talk about the history of Knock and the apparition. However, before all these activities took place we all gathered in the basillica for a short mass to reflect on this occassion.The mass was enjoyable and had many lovely moments from the beautiful singing to the meanngful readings from the preist. Kindness was the main subject of this mass, and we were asked to be more kind throughout lent and to look out for others. After mass we ate lunch, walked around the grounds, looked inside the souvenir shops and relaxed. The people who organised the event were kind enough to set up an ice-cream van for the students due to the good weather. After our short break we came back to begin our activities. As I mentioned, my first activity was a talk about the history of Knock and the events that took place before and after the apparition of Mary, St. Joseph and John, the evangelist. This was really interesting and taught us a lot, including many new facts about the building of the basilica and the large mosaic made out of 1.5 million pieces. After this talk, I headed onto my last activity which was meditation. This was probably one of my favourite moments as the red group gathered into a small dark room and each of us were invited to light a candle in the darkness for someone we wish to pray for. This moment of reflection was peaceful and calming, letting each one of us take a moment to breath and forget anything that was troubling us. Once this was completed, we headed into the main hall for our final section of the day. Here we listened to one schools’ faith group and all the activities in the year that they organised. At the end of this day, we were thanked for our participation and of course we thanked the organisers for their hard work and kindness. Once we left the hall everyone was allowed to take photos in front of the basilica and to look around the surrounding land. We took the bus home and finally arrived back at the school for around 7:30 pm.While it was a long and tiring day, I’m very grateful too have been brought on such a lovely trip and I can truly say that I had a fun time talking with other schools and learning new things about Knock. It was not solely a religious trip but also a time to be kind to ourselves and to be grateful for the many opportunities that we have been granted throughout our life.Alice Laudou
