The Church of Ascension in Wall Heath in Greater Dudley deanery ran a new holiday club for primary school aged children this summer.
This new venture, is part of their wider strategy to reach out to and support families in the local area and continue to build on existing relationships now Sian Morgan, who ran the group, has been appointed as Children and Youth worker for the church and nearby St Mary’s, a new role she will be starting in September.
The holiday club ran three mornings Monday-Wednesday and was for primary school aged children. Parents dropped off their children at 9.30am and picked them up again at 12.30pm and were asked to contribute just £5 in total for all three days, which kept the costs as low as possible for parents, and just covered the costs of running the club.
The holiday club was advertised on the church’s Facebook page and at four local schools that both churches have built up good links with. Sian has a particularly close relationship with the Church of Ascencion C of E primary school opposite where the holiday club was based, so most of the children attending are from that school, or they are children or grandchildren of members of the congregation.
Sian reports they had 13 children attend the holiday club and although they could have had up to 24, she says it was a nice number as it allowed for more discussion.
Sian said: “I really wanted to have real conversations with the children about who God is and who Jesus is and what difference that makes in their lives. I’ve found the children were a lot more honest with no parents around and having the video and then discussion time with that size group allowed everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas.”
“The children watched a video every day that told them a bible story, we looked at who Jesus is, his birth and then what happened to him so we covered Christmas to Easter all in one week! They also did a craft every day and had discussion time following each video, so there’s been a lot of Christian content.”
Sian found a great resource which she can recommend.
“I got all my inspiration and resources from the Scripture Union website. We bought in that resource as it covers everything from videos, animations, what questions to ask and templates you can just print off, so with all the planning and preparation side taken care of, that freed up our time to focus on the children.”
“I think we’ve had a good mix of activities as we’ve also done a Joe Wickes session every day and otherwise just spent a lot of time outside and playing games.”
“All the children attending the holiday club have engaged well, and it provides a great base to build on further. Following this club we will be staying in touch with all the parents and letting them know of everything else going on at the church and about our New Worshipping Community ‘Jigsaw’ coming soon.”
