Here we are at the Youthwork conference in Eastbourne…

Returned windswept from Eastbourne seafront, to snow storm in Luton High street!...

Tomorrow we have a day looking at faith, film and philosophy with year 13.

Were you at the schoolswork.co.uk early day? Did you want to be but couldn’t make it?
Take a look at some material from the early day, and access the recordings from our sessions.

A conference to prepare sixth-form students for university to coincide with Krish Kandiah’s (Evangelical Alliance) recently published book ‘Fresh’.

Organised by Mark Roques and the West Yorkshire School Of Christian Studies (WYSOCS), this day conference on Saturday 4th October is one to put in your diaries…

“This conference offers busy Christian teachers and teaching assistants time to stop, think and reflect. Delegates will be invited to consider how our understanding of the wholeness of the person, of life and of Gods world influence both the task of teaching and the promotion of pupil and staff wellbeing.”

The next STREAM schoolswork meeting is on Friday October 17th at London City Mission. Continue reading for more info and to download the publicity. An invite to all who do schoolswork in London and the South East.

A reminder about a couple of dates coming up:

- Saturday 4th October, Missing In Action,
        WYSOCS conference, Leeds

- Saturday 11th October, Christians in Education,
        ACT conference, London

Just a reminder for schools workers in London and the South East. The STREAM conference is this Friday, 17th October. Click here for more info. Topic - Christian ministry in a multi-faith society. See you there!

SWAP and M4 conference
18th-20th February
Life Church Burnley [www.lifechurchburnley.com
£50 per delegate / £35 for M4
Teaching, training, inspiration, ideas, conversation, creativity, challenge, COME ON!

If you work with primary age children it’s worth getting along to the Children’s Ministry Conference next weekend in Eastbourne (23rd-25th Jan). We enjoyed a great weekend in Eastbourne not so long ago for the Youthwork Conference, and now really looking forward to this one too, where there’ll be a schoolswork.co.uk presence in the exhibition hall, as well as a couple of seminars on schools work. If you haven’t heard about it yet, check out the site for more info.

Today was a fight through the wind and rain in Eastbourne into the conference centre for Children’s Ministry Conference. It was however a good end to a weekend of children’s songs (this was a culture shock for me), community building (i.e. great coffee and chat), and being reminded of the call we have to impact and make a positive difference in children’s lives. It was my first visit to the conference, but a privilege to be there and learn more about the great work that goes on with children throughout the UK.

Conferences are an amazing chance to connect with other youth, schools and children’s workers…a time to be encouraged and feel supported in your work, challenged to learn how to work better aswell as inspired by others who are walking a similar journey to you. With this in mind there are a few conferences coming up between now and the summer specifically for schools workers that it’s worth thinking about getting along to.

If you live up North, Pais are hosting a conference next month, and so this one I will start off by mentioning, but keep reading for more…

This is late notice, but if you’re able to make some time, there’s a great conference coming up on Wednesday this week organised by reinspired.  It’s a one day conference equipping you and your church to build lasting relationships with local schools by helping deliver exciting curriculum-driven RE lessons and assemblies and supporting the spiritual development of pupils.

R.E. Matters. It’s a fact! It’s also the name of a conference run by REinspired in a few weeks time. On Thursday 21st May,there is a conference to help you & your church support local schools with RE & Collective Worship. It’s taking place in Lincolnshire and runs from 10am to 4pm.

Topics will include:
· Getting involved with your local school
· Organising R.E. lessons and assemblies
· Building relationships that last
· Using Godly Play methods in schools
· Working with 6th Form
· Story Telling

Read on for more details.

Today I had the privilege of hanging out with some great people at a schoolswork conference in Surrey. There was a great turn out, and I’ve come away from the day really encouraged about the passion and enthusiasm for thinking creatively about our input into schools. The day began with a keynote from Nick Shepherd reminding us of the mission each of us is a part of as we step into the world of education each day. It’s interesting, as he was talking my mind drifted to a conversation I had with a teacher in school last week…