Last weekend saw a group of Intrepid St. Mary’s year 11 cyclists, Kristian Heron, Alex Rhone, Charlie White, David Olive and Maison Lewis, set off  for the Isle of Wight to complete a ‘Round the Island’ to help raise funds for their forthcoming trip to The Brothers Of Christian Instruction (De La Mennais Brothers) mission in Senegal, where they are going in March to help and work with local children.

Kristian 'Carbo' Loading

Farewell to Maison

The day started as they boarded the 6.00am Red Funnel to ensure an early start – but unfortunately they had not banked on Maison getting two flat tyres and a broken chain in the first two miles! Maison safely back on the Southampton return ferry the adventure continued, unfortunately it was now nearly 8.00am with a windy and wet 65 miles ahead.

The high wind, hills and wet conditions made the cycle ride far tougher  than they had envisaged. But a good lunch at The Wight Mouse Inn, in Chale restored their resolve and they batted on

Kristian'Carbo' loading.. Again!

Charlie working out the route

finally reaching the ferry at 7.00pm, 10 hours cycling in total. The really impressive aspect of this quest was that the boys instigated and organised the whole thing them selves.

Finally home and ready for a long bath.

If you would like to make a contribution to help with this worthy cause please contact brother James (bro_james@lamennais.org) as all funds will be gratefully received.

I posted several pieces of Anti-bullying poetry on the blog sometime ago, as part of the Anti-bullying week. Following on from this, parents were invited to attend an evening (27th Jan) regarding on-line safety and Cyberbullying. The session was very informative and once again raises our awareness to the insidious nature of ‘chat-rooms’ and social networking sites. I have attached a link to CEOPs which provides advice on how to report and deal with issues of abuse on-line. Please take the time to have a look.

http://www.ceop.gov.uk/