Over the last few years, the Vicar of St Martin’s, Finham, the Revd Matt Taylor, along with Children’s and Families worker, Kate Saxton, and Curate, the Revd Abby Rhodes, have worked hard to make good links with the schools in the parish (neither of which are church schools). Such is the success of the work that the team are welcomed into both Finham and Stivichall Primary Schools to do monthly assemblies and regular lessons as part of their RE and other curriculum subjects.
Sadly, since March school visits have not been possible, however the team have made sure to sustain the good relationships they built up by using technology. During the height of lockdown the team recorded monthly assemblies on Zoom from three different locations and disseminated the assemblies to children at home through the schools’ remote learning tools. They also provided learning material and two online sessions for year six pupils getting ready to leave primary school in July.
Since schools returned in September, the team have continued to send in recorded assemblies to be watched in classes and also have introduced live lessons over Microsoft Teams. During the lessons they have shared films, songs and stories. The children are able to talk to them and give feedback and responses from their classrooms in real time.
The Revd Abby Rhodes comments;
“It has been such a blessing for us to be able to continue this contact using new technology and we’ve received great feedback from the schools who have appreciated that we have kept up our normal support of their activities, in spite of the need to restrict visitors to the school. It has taken a lot of planning but is completely worth it as we see our relationships with the schools grow and the opportunity to share the love of Jesus further into our community.”