The chaplaincy team, headed by a full-time chaplain, meets regularly to plan a variety of events.  These include frequent eucharistic celebrations, other more seasonal acts of worship, assemblies, retreats and fund-raising activities.  The chaplain is available to any pupil or member of staff who might wish to talk to him, and tries to get to know every student by playing an active part in day to day college life. The chaplaincy team also prepares those who want to receive the sacraments of initiation - baptism, confirmation, and holy communion.

The Memorial Chapel can seat the whole school community, but for smaller gatherings there is the more intimate Sodality Chapel.  The retreat programme embraces several kinds of retreats:  the first year have an induction retreat shortly after they arrive in September; the confirmation class have a special retreat immediately before they are confirmed, and there are retreats for each year group during Lent.  All these are one-day "in house" retreats.  For the senior pupils there is the possibility of attending a more adult style of retreat - a three day residential retreat away from the busy school environment.

True spirituality can only grow where there is a practical outcome in the form of service for others.  Our pupils have the opportunity, and are encouraged, to help those with special needs.  A group go regularly to the "Derby Tuesday Club".  They go to help, but they probably gain more than they give.  In the summer term members of the club, who are adults with learning difficulties, come to the Mount for a short holiday.  We send a group to Lourdes with the diocesan pilgrimage - for all, a deeply moving experience.  There is, for the sixth form, a programme of community service.  In fact, everything is done to encourage our pupils to realise the aim set out in our Mission Statement, to be "men and women for others."

One aspect of this ideal of service is to raise money for a variety of charities.  Apart from the more traditional "family fast days", "casuals days", and collections, there are all sorts of sponsored events - usually initiated by the pupils themselves - and often quite exotic!

All members of staff are expected to try and realise the aspirations embodied in the Mount Mission Statement, through their class teaching and through the myriad activities they run. The Statement is frequently referred to in Assemblies and homilies, and our performance vis-à-vis the Statement, is regularly reviewed.

Mount St Mary's College, UK

And

Chikuni Parish, Zambia

  As part of a Jesuit Missions scheme, Mount St Mary's is now linked with the parish of Chikuni in Zambia.  Our pupils have taken to the scheme with enthusiasm, learning about Zambia and about Chikuni, and raising money for the parish. 

In July 2005, our Chaplain took two sixth-formers out to Chikuni for a ten-day visit. The parish is the size of an average English county, has a population of some 25,000 Tonga people and is served by three Jesuit priests.  Besides the church in the village of Chikuni, there are 21 mass-centres in outlying villages which serve as clinics when the Home Base Care team visit to treat those infected with AIDS.  In Chikuni itself, there are two secondary boarding schools - the boys' school run by Jesuits and the girls' by religious sisters, there is a teacher-training college, also under Jesuit direction, a state-run hospital and an FM radio station, Radio Chikuni.  The radio station is used to encourage local culture, to educate through "radio schools" and other educational programmes and to keep people informed of local events.  Despite the fact that there are 48 state-run "basic schools" in the parish, many youngsters live too far from any of these to be able to walk to school every day and have to gather round a teacher with a wind-up radio. 

Through the pupils' fundraising efforts, the Home Base Care team at Chikuni were able to buy a new 4x4 vehicle to make their visits to outlying villages. Former pupil Robert Parkinson spent 6 months in 2007 doing voluntary work and saw the new Jeep in action.

2007 saw the start of another initiative, as the Mount has taken on a partnership with Conisius High School, a secondary school maintained by the Jesuits in the Chikuni parish. Cultural exchanges have already begun via letters!