New Hall School was founded by the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre in 1642 in Liège, in what is now Belgium. While a branch of the religious order moved to England along with the School, many Canonesses live in communities around the world, with overseas Priories in Zaragoza, Rwanda, Congo and Belgium. Last week, Mrs Jeffrey, Principal, and Dr Tiffen, Vice Principal, travelled to one of these – the small city of Turnhout, located in the north of Belgium, close to the border with the Netherlands.  Their visit began with a trip to meet the Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre who are based in the village of Tongerlo.  This Community has strong links with our own founding Religious Community, and, like our own Canonesses, also founded a school.  Having attended Mass with them, Mrs Jeffrey and Dr Tiffen were delighted to meet the members of this Community, the oldest being 101 years old.  Having been inspired by their stories and having established that the Canonesses fluency in English was far superior to Dr Tiffen’s Dutch, the Prioress, Sr Gert, presented Mrs Jeffrey with books detailing the history of the Community and their school, Heilig Graf (meaning Holy Sepulchre in Dutch).

Following this meeting, and having taken the opportunity to tour the beautiful nearby Abbeys of Tongerlo and Averbode, it was back to Turnhout, in order to visit Heilig Graf School. Heilig Graf has now grown to include four primary schools and a secondary school, that is split across three sites in the city.  Mrs Jeffrey and Dr Tiffen had the opportunity to meet with members of the school’s leadership team, the teaching staff and, most importantly, the students.  Interrupting an English lesson, Mrs Jeffrey and Dr Tiffen described New Hall to the class of 17-year-olds and were delighted to hear how enthusiastic the students were about their own school.  The last stage of the visit was then a meeting to discuss how both schools could work more closely with each other in the future and how to use this international link to develop greater opportunities for the children at both schools. Students and staff from Heilig Graf had previously visited New Hall in 2014 on their Choir Tour, holding a joint concert in our Chapel.

Following their busy short visit, Mrs Jeffrey and Dr Tiffen returned to the UK with minds abuzz with ideas about the future links that could be possible and looking forward to hosting a reciprocal visit for the Heilig Graf staff to New Hall later in this academic year.