Connect & Belong
Best suited for yr 7-9 students
“AN AUTHENTIC AND ENGAGING RETREAT FOR CATHOLIC & CHRISTIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.”
SESSION 1- CONNECT WITH YOURSELF
- Connect with your Unique Authentic self and show love.
- Finding Purpose through being of service of others.
- Building Empathy.
- Love your neighbour as yourself.
- The power of Forgiveness.
“ For it is in giving we receive” St Francis
SESSION 2- CONNECTING TO OTHERS
- Going Beyond the comfort zone.
- Building our Relationship Bank Accounts - Learning and applying the 5 Love Languages.
- Meaningfully taking time to slow down to be present.
- Considering ways to increase our connection, peace and love.
“ Love one another. As I have loved you.” John 13:34-35
SESSION 3- CONNECTING TO GOD & FINDING BELONGING
- Spirituality is more than a retreat thing.
- Consider our relationship to the world around us, and how we can connect to something bigger.
- Sharing our gratitude with others and our gratitude for others.
- Reflect on where and who God is in our lives personally. Considering different images of God.
“ God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you.”
St Patrick
‘Connect & belong’
Retreat Day Outline
All retreats have been expertly designed by Pete McAuliffe and Luke McKenna.
Pete McAuliffe is the Head of The Character Project. He is an edutrainer with over a decade of experience working with schools, communities, and church groups. He is passionate about helping individuals develop both their inner character and outer contribution, Pete empowers them to lead, influence, and serve with authenticity and purpose. His journey began as a college captain, sparking his commitment to inspiring students and staff to find meaning in faith and spirituality, and to lead through influence rather than power. Pete has been working with UPP since 2016, and has delivered UPP workshops to more than 90,000 students across Australia and more recently Ireland.
Luke McKenna is the Founder and Director of Unleashing Personal Potential (UPP). Previously, he was an Assistant Principal at a Catholic School in Brisbane. He taught Religious Education for years, before starting UPP. Luke holds degrees in Business and Education, a Masters of Educational Leadership, a Graduate Certificate in Religious Education and a Professional Certificate in Positive Education. He has also presented at State-wide Catholic Principals and Deputy Principals conferences.
The Character Project Retreats are delivered by our team of hand-picked, highly trained specialists from the UPP team. All of our workshops are tried and tested to be practical, engaging, positive, interactive and age appropriate. UPP workshops have had a positive impact on more than 300,000 Australian students since commencing in 2015 and are highly trusted by Teachers and Principals across Australia.
We use our learning, action, reflection process for all workshops, which ensures that all students are engaged through a variety of different modes (video, stories, activities, reflection, partner sharing, etc). For more about that, check out our guarantee.
The Character Project Retreats are authentic and inclusive of students who are at different parts of their faith journey. The aim is that after a Character Project Retreat, each student will be more open to exploring their spirituality, and that the whole cohort will be more connected.
RETREAT DESIGN AND DELIVERY
Details and Pricing
The investment for this engaging and transformative retreat is $22+GST/student (minimum investment of $1,800+GST/day), plus travel expenses (if applicable). This retreat is run by The Character Project Team at your school with a whole cohort of students. The best venue is your school hall (or similar), as we use a learning, action, reflection process throughout the day. For the greatest impact, we recommend that classroom RE teachers / Home Room teachers / Heads of House are present and involved for the whole day, as this has many benefits to the students and school moving forward.
“ Authentic and relatable.”
“The day targeted the age group perfectly and the material was very relevant. The girls will take a lot away from this experience.”
“Effective and yet highly humorous.”
“Pete was awesome as always!
The girls got a lot out of the session and I had some great feedback from them this morning. They loved how Pete kept them on track, but also how funny he was”
“ Authentic and relatable.”
“Meets students where they are at.”
“The session was brilliant. He was sensational and had the students engaged 100%.”