Children and young people spend a lot of their time in school.
Schools, like churches, are found in every community. They are an ideal place to share and show the love of God.
Forging stronger links with local schools, praying for them and working with them should be central to any parish’s youth, children and family strategy with a school in or near their parish. By working with other local parishes, and ecumenically, it should be possible to see every school in the Diocese have links with at least one local church.
Linking with schools can be tough, and it takes time to build a healthy and helpful relationship between a school and a church. As a Diocese we would like to resource parishes to do this by advising and working with parishes, enabling them to build an effective and helpful missional framework to work with their local school.
Faith can be supported in schools through school culture, collective worship, RE lessons, reading and chaplaincy, as well as lots of other ways.
Prayer Spaces in Schools
Prayer spaces enable children and young people, of all faiths and none, to explore life’s questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way. The Prayer Spaces in Schools website is packed full of great ideas for you to use.
Collective Worship
Collective worship is a daily part of school life. Church of England schools are committed to offering high quality collective worship. They are places that recognise and value collective worship as central to fostering a sense of community and to expressing the school’s Christian vision. We resource leaders of collective worship through a network. Find out more by contacting Jen McIlveen.
Church and School Partnerships
Partnerships between schools and churches should be celebrated. We would love to hear stories of how your local school and church are working together.