‘One family’

Students from St Julie’s Catholic High School may soon find a familiar sight in an unusual place, as the school’s uniform has been adopted for a brand new Notre Dame School opening in Abuja, Nigeria.

Staff at the school were delighted to welcome Sister Maureen Okeke SND, who has been given the exciting challenge of opening a new Notre Dame school for girls in Abuja and in preparation has been visiting all of the Notre Dame schools throughout the United Kingdom.

Among all of the ideas that Sister Maureen collected on her journey, she has chosen to adopt the French navy blazer and Holyrood tartan kilt uniform for its style, smartness and practicality.

This international link is not an unusual experience for St Julie’s, as Tim Alderman, headteacher, said: “We continually strive to instil in our students a sense of their place amongst the rich heritage of Notre Dame education stretching out over two hundred years and right across the globe.

“The regular pilgrimages we make to the Notre Dame Heritage Centre in Namur are a wonderful experience, but the realisation that girls in Nigeria will be attending a Notre Dame school in exactly the same uniform that our students here are wearing is a very strong reminder of Sister Dorothy Stang’s words: ‘We are a global people, one family”.