Lambeth & Southwark Hub News

Hello All, 

I realise Easter may feel a long time ago now, however, as this is my first update since then, I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter! It is my favourite time of year as the Easter story speaks of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and it is a joy to share this with children in our local schools. 

It has been a particularly busy term. I visited 18 Primary schools in the Spring Term and 11 of them I visit regularly on a fortnightly basis. One school has been visited for one half term’s worth of RE lessons. One, a church school, is visited weekly for ‘Faith Leaders Club’. The rest have been visited once or twice, usually for festivals like Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Easter. I must have told 1,500 children the Easter story this year. I visit two pupil referral units and a unit for children with Autism as well as main-stream primary schools. 

This year I have visited most of the schools on my own, but after unexpectedly (it was a God-incidence) meeting Clare at a church coffee morning in September, I have her company on one of my visits where she is gradually taking over delivery of the assemblies. Clare has now done her first solo assembly and she created some lovely resources to illustrate the story – the headteacher of the school and I watched in amazement.  I have really been enjoying Clare’s company and support - it is a real answer to prayer, and the aim is that Clare will visit the school on her own soon.

Highlights of this term have included a wonderful afternoon telling the Easter story with two Year 4 classes. The children enjoyed designing silhouette pictures of the Easter story. Another highlight was making Easter gardens with a reception class outdoors as the children really enjoyed decorating their gardens.  I have also been running the Faith Leaders Club at a Church of England School and the children, with my help, have been evaluating Collective Worship. We organised a survey of songs that the children would like to sing in worship and the winner was... ‘When Jesus says yes, nobody can say no', (it’s on You Tube!). The children have said they enjoy singing and they would like to say prayers out loud together rather than having a time for reflection.  They would also like to have more drama in Collective Worship.  The Faith Group are going to lead Collective Worship in May which I will support them with and is really exciting!  Another highlight of this term was being invited to the bicentennial celebration for one of my schools at the Oval cricket ground. It was lovely and made me feel so appreciated! 

My ambitions for Lambeth & Southwark Hub include finding more people like Clare to help me visit more schools as I really want to build a team.  I would like to find more schools in Southwark, which is hard due to falling numbers of children and some schools are considering amalgamating. 

I cannot do this without your prayers.  Please pray:

• for the schools in this area
• for myself and others as we serve schools in this ministry
• for people to join me in whatever capacity they are able
• for financial support 

Thank you so much for supporting what we do.

If you would like to follow what I am doing in schools, please take a look at our Facebook page below:

Wishing you every blessing as we all take in the reality of Jesus’ resurrection and long for more of God’s Holy Spirit.   

Love from Heather 
Lambeth & Southwark Hub Leader