Epsom & Ewell Summer Newsletter

Dear Friends, 

Another academic year has whizzed by and once again the Epsom & Ewell Hub team members have been busy taking the inspiration of Jesus and the Bible into local primary schools.
 
Our small group of volunteers is now well established, and following some team changes, we are now running a full programme of regular assemblies and RE Days as well as the popular lunchtime Fish Club at St Martin’s, Epsom.

Once again, where some schools no longer require us, others have come forward, so the team now works in schools from Epsom to Worcester Park.   This means that the RE curriculum for both Surrey and London must be accommodated and the team has had to be particularly ‘agile’ and flexible in designing and presenting RE Days to fit both.

A new curriculum for Surrey Schools also meant that our RE Days must now cover some different modules, so ‘Why do Christians Worship Jesus?’ has swiftly joined our ‘Why do Christians Call God Father?’ and ‘How does Jesus Change Lives?’ day-long workshops. Another new RE Day ‘The Kingdom of God’ has been designed and will join the programme next term.

Each workshop includes teaching, games, quizzes, songs and craft activities as well as the ever popular “Pass the Pigs” game; the days seem to be genuinely loved by the year group receiving them. Our wide programme means that each year group can have age-appropriate teaching at a whole-day workshop at least once a year.

Our seasonal Easter and  ‘Moving On’ RE Days were complemented in December by a new whole-school assembly, 'Unfrozen’ weaving the Christmas Story into the Disney favourite, and proving hugely popular. We are excited to be planning for this year’s Christmas assembly which will be based on Star Wars!

A weekly all-age lunch club at St Martin’s is also very popular and well attended and sometimes children have to be turned away. As well as proving that there is a need and an appetite for Christian education in our schools, this saddens us and it would be much better if we could accommodate as many children as wish to come. Sadly our present resourcing does not allow for this but we aspire to be able to welcome all children who want to attend. 

We have also had the privilege of presenting Assemblies in two of our schools every two weeks. For the last two years we have been doing an assembly series called ‘Its Jesus’. This series has given us the opportunity to take the children through the life and teachings of Jesus. It has been a great series written by the Central Spinnaker Team and has been well received by the schools. In the new academic year, we will be presenting another Spinnaker original curriculum called ‘Beyond Belief’, available here. This series will focus on school values taught from the bible. 

During the year we have had the opportunity to present our work and vision to Churches Together in Epsom as well as being invited to Guildford to participate in a school’s ministry conference. These opportunities are greatly appreciated as they give us the opportunity to communicate what God is doing in Epsom and Ewell and also to meet the people who make it possible for us to keep doing what we are doing. 

Thank you all, once again, for your continued support and prayer for the local and central Spinnaker team members.

Prayer Points: 

• For resources to be available to continue and expand lunchtime Fish Clubs
• For children, staff and support workers at our local schools 
• For the new RE Day the Kingdom of God, which will launch next term. 
  

We hope you had a blessed summer.

With Warmest Wishes
Lisa Bell