Cheshire West and Chester Schools Ethos Conference
The third annual Ethos Conference for school in Cheshire West and Chester took place on Friday 21 June at Tarporley CE Primary School. Children and leaders from Tarporley, Witton Church Walk CE Primary School and St Oswald’s CE Primary School have been working together for the last year to organise the conference. This year the conference grew in size again with 18 schools booked in for the day and well over 100 children attending.
The theme for this year’s conference was ‘God’s Love’. The day started with a time of worship together before all the children and adults split into 6 groups to complete 3 workshops such as prayer spaces, art and craft, singing, forest school, and much more. Immediately after lunch there was a presentation for adults attending by the children from Tarporley, St Oswald’s and Witton Church Walk about the Ethos groups they run in school and the activities they do. At the end of the day everyone met together for a time of sharing led by Paul North, the chaplain from Bishops High School and some of their students. This included a hilarious drama on the story of the Lost Sheep and how this demonstrated ‘God’s Love’ for us.
To conclude we finished with a lovely message from Chris Penn and introduced to a lovely song about God’ love which I am sure is now being sung in lots more schools in Cheshire West. All children then left the conference with a goody bag painstakingly put together the previous week by the children of the three organising schools.
Organising the conference was inspired by seeing the work of Bishop Bridgeman CE Primary School in Bolton at the diocese conference a number of years ago. As school leaders we felt that it would be good to have an opportunity for church schools in Cheshire West to attend an event. We aim to assist schools with developing their Christian distinctiveness and to give opportunities for schools to come together and celebrate being a church school.
If anyone would like further information about the conference or our plans for next year feel free to email Dave Wallace, head of St Oswald’s CE Primary School head@stoswald-moll.cheshire.sch.uk
