Our Youth Workers issue an annual report on their activities during the previous school year. Here is their report for 2014:
Chaplaincy – Leek College: Last July the youth workers were approached by one of the chaplains from Buxton College to see if we would be able to provide a Chaplaincy service at Leek College, now ‘Buxton and Leek College’ and a part of Derby University. We took up the role between the 3 of us and have been exploring exactly what it entails. Currently we are available to talk to students and staff on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning and hold a prayer meeting every Tuesday morning in college to which the staff have been invited.
We collected items for the Leek Food bank as a harvest offering in October and in November led a short remembrance service in the college garden. We invited staff and students to join us for mince pies and mulled wine whilst listening to carols played by a brass band just before the Christmas holidays. For Easter we are planning to display a series of pictures showing modern depictions of the Stations of the Cross. Our role is still developing and will no doubt change next year as the college is having a lot of building work done.
Lunch time clubs - Middle and High Schools: Both Life Force at St. Edward’s Academy and 2020 at Churnet View have been well attended all year with between 20 and 30 students attending. This school year we have looked at Characteristics of God, people who followed God and events from Jesus life.
2020 at Leek High School continues to provide a place for students to drop in and talk to a friendly youth worker, eat a Jaffa Cake and drink hot chocolate.
The St Edward’s puppet Club performed songs and a short sketch for the children at Westwood First School before Christmas. Just before Easter they performed an original version of the wise man who built his house on the rock (with animals!) to their own year group. They are currently rehearsing a short show for the Y4s visit to school during transition week.
Lessons - Middle and High Schools: Lessons at Leek High school have included ‘A Christian perspective on the media’, ‘is there a God?’ and ‘Racism’ all of which have generated much discussion.
Before Christmas we ran a Christmas Sacred Space Lesson in both Churnet View and St Edward’s which was a’ hands on’, interactive lesson giving every class the opportunity to think about the Christmas Story. There have also been lessons on ‘God, Evil and Suffering’, ‘The life of a Christian’ and Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish men in the middle schools.
We continue to take a Life Skills lesson at Westwood High School each week helping the class to increase in confidence with practical and discussion based lessons.
Sacred Space: We ran our 3rd ‘Sacred Space’ at St. Edward’s Academy at the beginning of June. We based this on the theme of ‘The World’ with jungle, beach, town, river and road areas as well as a mountain with Christ the redeemer on the top as a link to the world cup. Every class in the school spent their RE lesson experiencing the space. They had opportunity to ask God a question, tell Him their fears, reflect on what it would be like to be a Brazilian Street child, pray for people in Leek, think about challenges and difficulties in their lives and more, all in a creative way.
Self Esteem Group - Churnet View Middle School: This year we have run 5 ‘Shine’ self esteem sessions with Y8 girls. Each session has 8 girls and gives them chance to think about how they view themselves, how they treat others, what beauty means, the choices they make and their value. Some comments from this year when asked ‘Do you think you will change anything about how you think or act?’
“Yes, I will try not to think negatively” “Yes I will be more confident about myself” “Yes, I will think before I act and it doesn’t matter how you look” “I will respect everyone else more.”
More puppets! : The Synapse puppet team performed to pupils at Horton Lodge Special School, Springfield Special School and The Meadows Special School at Christmas and Easter times. The schools were very appreciative. Our next performance, a version of ‘The Lost Sheep’ takes place at the beginning of July in 3 different schools.
Some members of the team have been going to the Meadows on a Friday afternoon to help some students there use the puppets. Just before Christmas we helped a group to perform to the rest of the school which they really enjoyed and we had a lot of fun!
Mentoring - St Edward’s Academy: St. Edward’s academy have identified a group of pupils who they think would benefit from mentoring and asked the youth workers to be involved in this. Some of us began mentoring a pupil in September and, hopefully this will continue in September.
Werrington Young Offenders: Paul takes a team of 6 people every 2 months into Werrington YOI as part of the Chaplaincy provision there. They lead modern and traditional Christian songs, share the gospel and their personal testimonies with young men there who have chosen to come along to a Sunday morning service.
Mission Academy: This is a nationwide project to encourage young people in churches to organise mission to other young people in whatever way is appropriate in their setting. 3 young people from the Pentecostal church have began a Mission Academy project this year, with support from Paul, with a series of prayer meetings. This is an ongoing project which will develop as the group decide what they are going to do next.
Chaplaincy – Leek College: Last July the youth workers were approached by one of the chaplains from Buxton College to see if we would be able to provide a Chaplaincy service at Leek College, now ‘Buxton and Leek College’ and a part of Derby University. We took up the role between the 3 of us and have been exploring exactly what it entails. Currently we are available to talk to students and staff on a Tuesday and Wednesday morning and hold a prayer meeting every Tuesday morning in college to which the staff have been invited.
We collected items for the Leek Food bank as a harvest offering in October and in November led a short remembrance service in the college garden. We invited staff and students to join us for mince pies and mulled wine whilst listening to carols played by a brass band just before the Christmas holidays. For Easter we are planning to display a series of pictures showing modern depictions of the Stations of the Cross. Our role is still developing and will no doubt change next year as the college is having a lot of building work done.
Lunch time clubs - Middle and High Schools: Both Life Force at St. Edward’s Academy and 2020 at Churnet View have been well attended all year with between 20 and 30 students attending. This school year we have looked at Characteristics of God, people who followed God and events from Jesus life.
2020 at Leek High School continues to provide a place for students to drop in and talk to a friendly youth worker, eat a Jaffa Cake and drink hot chocolate.
The St Edward’s puppet Club performed songs and a short sketch for the children at Westwood First School before Christmas. Just before Easter they performed an original version of the wise man who built his house on the rock (with animals!) to their own year group. They are currently rehearsing a short show for the Y4s visit to school during transition week.
Lessons - Middle and High Schools: Lessons at Leek High school have included ‘A Christian perspective on the media’, ‘is there a God?’ and ‘Racism’ all of which have generated much discussion.
Before Christmas we ran a Christmas Sacred Space Lesson in both Churnet View and St Edward’s which was a’ hands on’, interactive lesson giving every class the opportunity to think about the Christmas Story. There have also been lessons on ‘God, Evil and Suffering’, ‘The life of a Christian’ and Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish men in the middle schools.
We continue to take a Life Skills lesson at Westwood High School each week helping the class to increase in confidence with practical and discussion based lessons.
Sacred Space: We ran our 3rd ‘Sacred Space’ at St. Edward’s Academy at the beginning of June. We based this on the theme of ‘The World’ with jungle, beach, town, river and road areas as well as a mountain with Christ the redeemer on the top as a link to the world cup. Every class in the school spent their RE lesson experiencing the space. They had opportunity to ask God a question, tell Him their fears, reflect on what it would be like to be a Brazilian Street child, pray for people in Leek, think about challenges and difficulties in their lives and more, all in a creative way.
Self Esteem Group - Churnet View Middle School: This year we have run 5 ‘Shine’ self esteem sessions with Y8 girls. Each session has 8 girls and gives them chance to think about how they view themselves, how they treat others, what beauty means, the choices they make and their value. Some comments from this year when asked ‘Do you think you will change anything about how you think or act?’
“Yes, I will try not to think negatively” “Yes I will be more confident about myself” “Yes, I will think before I act and it doesn’t matter how you look” “I will respect everyone else more.”
More puppets! : The Synapse puppet team performed to pupils at Horton Lodge Special School, Springfield Special School and The Meadows Special School at Christmas and Easter times. The schools were very appreciative. Our next performance, a version of ‘The Lost Sheep’ takes place at the beginning of July in 3 different schools.
Some members of the team have been going to the Meadows on a Friday afternoon to help some students there use the puppets. Just before Christmas we helped a group to perform to the rest of the school which they really enjoyed and we had a lot of fun!
Mentoring - St Edward’s Academy: St. Edward’s academy have identified a group of pupils who they think would benefit from mentoring and asked the youth workers to be involved in this. Some of us began mentoring a pupil in September and, hopefully this will continue in September.
Werrington Young Offenders: Paul takes a team of 6 people every 2 months into Werrington YOI as part of the Chaplaincy provision there. They lead modern and traditional Christian songs, share the gospel and their personal testimonies with young men there who have chosen to come along to a Sunday morning service.
Mission Academy: This is a nationwide project to encourage young people in churches to organise mission to other young people in whatever way is appropriate in their setting. 3 young people from the Pentecostal church have began a Mission Academy project this year, with support from Paul, with a series of prayer meetings. This is an ongoing project which will develop as the group decide what they are going to do next.