‘Experience Dudley’ is a faith, community and heritage project that started as a four-day pilot at Top Church in Dudley in 2022, partnering with a local CofE school to offer it to their key stage 2 pupils.
Thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this year staff have been able expand to KS2 pupils from two church schools and one community school across three full weeks, reaching close to 1000 children.
Children and Youth Minister, Clare Soar, who devised the experience explained that it originally came about through discussions with Jesson’s CofE primary who had expressed interest in taking part in an experience similar to ‘Experience Easter’ but which related more closely to their curriculum in core subjects. Top Church had already launched their Heritage project and discovered some really interesting stories from the history of the church and town. Clare recognised she could interweave stories of faith and create ‘Experience Dudley’ linking it to the history curriculum to reach more schools in the local area.
“Experience Dudley is all about telling the stories of the history of Top Church and of Dudley” explains Clare “The strapline behind it is ‘Pride and Aspiration’. That’s pride in living in Dudley and Aspiration for the future. We want local children to feel proud of Dudley through knowing the stories of their town and church.”
Themed by six local heritage stories, Clare and her colleagues set up 10-minute ‘activity stations’ in the church for groups of children to rotate around, teaching the pupils about local history, the church and faith in a fun and interactive way. The themes were:
Top Church and cholera – the church played an important role during a Cholera outbreak in the 1800s. Rainwater was collected on the roof with a cistern built in the crypt to provide clean water for the townspeople so they wouldn’t get sick. Clare uses different narratives around serving one another as well as clean water and living water to link back to the Christian message.
Baptism and the font – this activity is centred around the font in the church, where the children enjoyed hearing about becoming part of church family and brushing their fingers through the water.
Dudley and World War II - a bomb was dropped on a pub in World War II that was located opposite Top Church. The explosion left shrapnel marks on the front of the church that you can still see today. Activities and discussions focused on mark making and how history leaves its mark, but what remains is what matters – including Dudley! The children did brass rubbings and found items to make marks within the church.
Glass making – through this activity station the children learned about some of the stories of the stained-glass windows around the church including the window above the altar which is not made of stained glass and yet still allows the light to filter through the image in the same way. The children were asked to suggest how the window had been made which resulted in a wide variety of suggestions. The window is in fact painted glass! The children had their own ‘glass’ making activities too.
Eugenia Robinson – the children learnt about a woman called Eugenia Robinson who has a plaque in the church. She was a local philanthropist and a pioneer for women. Several public buildings in Dudley including the new town hall, museum and coroner’s court, were built in memory of Eugenia and her husband, MP Brooke Robinson.
Places of Worship – the children took part in activities about different places of worship and how we worship at Top Church.
Clare added:
“The kids loved the days and had great fun with all the creative activities. We’ve had so much positive feedback from all the schools, and the children remembered many of the stories they’d learnt as well.”
“We already had a good relationship with the two Church of England schools but for the non-church school that came, it’s been the springboard to get us working together on a regular basis going forwards which is brilliant.”
“We hope to get additional funding in the future so we can offer ‘Experience Dudley’ again and expand to other schools in the area as well.”
