On Tuesday 4th February, staff and students will be celebrating 'Notre Dame Day'. But why do we celebrate Notre Dame Day?
On 2nd February 1804, St Julie Billiart and two companions began the order of Notre Dame de Namur, dedicating their lives to the education of poor children as she saw education as a basic human right. She said it, "was the greatest work on Earth".
The Sisters of this Belgian religious order came to Leeds in 1898 at the invitation of Canon Croskell of St Anne’s Cathedral to run the schools in the cathedral parish. They arrived on 29th August 1898 to No.7 St Marks Avenue in a horse drawn cab to find a neglected residence and no-one to welcome them. The story goes that the cab driver had a wooden leg, which he took off to bang a door down to let the Sisters in and the rest as they say is history!
The Sisters taught here and opened new school buildings behind No.7 in 1904-5 (the majority of which were demolished in October 2008). The name of the new school was Notre Dame High School for Girls. It opened with 7 teachers and 75 pupils. The Sister's aim was to embody the spirit of St Julie by teaching their charges how to live, to know right from wrong, to love God and to serve, what we now know as character formation – something we continue to deliver every day through our Stella Maris virtues! Staff and students will be marking the occasion through various activities which will include:
- Mass will be celebrated in the Chapel
- Staff and students will be offered free porridge
- Students and Staff will raise money for charity
- The annual Treasure Hunt competition for students will be held
- Staff and students are encouraged to come to college wearing blue, the colour of Notre Dame
- All students learn about the history of Notre Dame in PTE lessons this week
Our chosen charities for the week are St George’s Crypt, Leeds Children’s Hospital and Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA).
Lay Chaplain, Anne Merry, said ‘Notre Dame Day allows us to look back at and give thanks for the great foundation that the College was built upon. From the Sisters arriving here with a mission to provide education to all, Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College continues to afford opportunities to all students so that they experience education of the whole person and are enabled to reach their potential’.