Back from Eastbourne!
Wow what a great couple of weekends we’ve had. It’s such a privilege being able to spend time with really great people whose passion for God inspires and motivates a desire to learn how to do youthwork better. Thanks to everyone who stopped by and signed up at our schoolswork.co.uk stand, joined in with our seminars and hung out with us during the Early Day. For those of you not at the conference, we’ll be posting thoughts, discussions and even some new material from the conference soon (when we’ve had a day or two to catch up on sleep!).
Last night we enjoyed another school disco, having a fab time with over 300 of the Youthwork delegates - lots of cheesy tunes, dancing, and another ipod winner! Since Tom’s first appearance on the stage at Southport last week, he has now blessed hundreds more with his dancing talent, appearing as a regular on the mainstage, and entertaining us in style at the disco. (Tom is part of the schoolswork.co.uk team and hosts the monthly podcast).
Do get in touch if there is anything you’d like to follow up from the conference (or ask about if you weren’t there?)...I do pray that once you’ve managed to recover from being blown about on seafronts and also a possible lack of sleep, that God confirms in you and through you the purpose to which you have been called to minister to young people, that He restores and strengthens you - mind, body and spirit, and that you can go, excited that the God who calls you IS faithful!
Hi Amy,
It was a long drive back to Exmoor, plenty of loud worship CDs and a few coffee stops! A bit of the “what next” feeling. If I am honest feeling a bit of an anticlimax today, but the weekend was amazing. So glad I was at the Early Day. Gave me the space to re-evaluate the work the Exmoor Youth Project is doing.
Lat Blaylock was so inspiring, as were you all. As for the liturgical dance, what can I say! That will live with me for years, in fact it may even have damaged me!
Back to work now planning a Primary AOW for tomorrow, might just find a few ideas in the notes I made over the weekend!
Thanks to you all for all your hard work.
Paul
PS: Yes I am the one with the dodgy moustache! It’s coming off on Saturday after the last night party, or maybe during!
Lat Blaylock’s Game
I just played Lat’s “Beyond Belief” game with two year 9 groups this afternoon. Fantastic! Really doeas enagage the students.
Just a couple of classroom management tips:
1. If possible, copy the belief statments onto actual card. Some students discovered you could ruin the game by blowing paper versions of the statements!!
2. Have the follow-up sheet (Top Six Beliefs) handy to give to any groups who finish the game quickly/get bored - it gives a focus for them whilst the other groups continue the game. I gave some groups the opportunity to move onto this follow-up or continue the game (most opted to continue the game).
3. If you’re a schools worker going into an RS lesson and haven’t run a ‘game’ type activity before I’d recommend you ask the teacher to be present to deal with any high spirited groups, to free you up to engage the students in conversation.
Enjoy
I’ve just started in schools work - the project has been going for 2 months. I found the early day really helpful and feel I’ve been given some clarity about the vision for the future! Thank you!
If you’re interested in using Lat Blaylock’s ‘Beyond Belief’ game as mentioned in Adrian’s comment, see the Resource Toolkit where there is a link to where you can get hold of this on the RE today website.
Hi Gemma, just looked back on some comments from November and was wondering how your project is going now - 2 months on??
Hope God is still revealing more and more of what He wants you to be doing, and who He is in YOUR life.
Bless you in your work,
Amy
It’s been amazing, we’ve just started a girls group with 4/5 girls that have been referred to us by the school. The girls are being taken out of other lessons to attend the group and have really taken to it. I’m just amazed at what God is doing here. I’m in the process of putting a presentation together for my board of trustees about the direction I believe Jesus is leading us in, which is very exciting.
Gemma that sounds fab, so glad you’re enjoying it aswell. It’s so good when a school see the value in a mentoring group and allows pupils to use lesson time for that. great stuff. Hope the presentation goes well ;)
Welcome back!
Back and forward!