MUSWELL HILL CHRISTIAN COUNCIL
Opportunities to support our local schools
As a group of churches in Muswell Hill, we would like to explore ways of making our resources accessible to the schools in our area. This initiative has arisen from opportunities presented to us, and to which we have been pleased to respond.

During the last school year, the churches in Muswell Hill have been invited to offer resources for two educational exhibitions:

At the Haringey Professional Development Centre in October, in connection with the National Festival of Religious Education. (This would have been seen mostly by teachers and governors.)

At Coldfall Primary School in connection with an ILE. week in March. Children aged from 3 to11 came into the exhibition, which was mounted in school. Lessons were taught at a number of levels, using these materials as a basis.

There were visits by classes to several churches during the week, in particular an ecumenical tour arranged by Jeremy Davies for 9 - II year olds.

A number of clergy and lay members of churches took assemblies, taught lessons, or came to read stories in school

It became evident that we have between us many resources of great interest to children of all ages. Many of these are directly relevant to the teaching of the 'Christianity' section of the recently produced Haringey agreed syllabus for Religious Education.  There is also a variety of resources which could connect with other areas of the curriculum:

Local study - history, geography - development of Muswell Hill

Art I craft - visual treasures in different media and styles

Social I ethical - involvement with disadvantaged sectors of the community to suggest but a few obvious examples.

In recent meetings of the Christian Council, there has been considerable interest in the idea of putting together a simple pack for our local schools in which we could:

* identify resources we have available already and could lend to schools

* suggest other areas in which we could give support

* offer personnel who could come in to take an assembly or an occasional lesson

* give contact information for each church

* emphasise that we would like to interact with them in what they would like to do, and we would welcome     the opportunity to discuss particular areas in which they would value support.

If this were to be presented as an initiative from the combined churches in our group, it would be good to have input from interested people representing different churches. I realise that those who have the interest and perhaps some involvement in education will probably have very little time available, so it would be good to make participation as flexible as possible.

Regarding my own part in this, I am an ex-Junior school teacher and governor, and am actively involved in the Muswell Hill Christan Council. I have been involved on a voluntary basis at Coldfall for many years, so I have been able to follow curriculum developments, and also try out some ideas from time to time. I would be happy to give some time to exploring the area of school I church Links, but I would be very glad to hear from any one in your church who might also like to be involved in any way.

Please pass this on or copy it to them, and ask them to give me a ring if they might be interested. If they would like to see what has been done already, we have a video available which Keith Welton made when he visited the Coldfall exhibition - please ask Keith (0181-883-4802) or me (0181-883-8227) if you would like to borrow a copy. Also, I have examples of display material at my house, and would be very pleased to share it over a cup of coffee -just ring to arrange a time.

The next move depends on what interest is expressed, but I hope we could meet to share ideas and to put together some proposals which we would present initially to the Christian Council. It would be good to be able to send preliminary information out to schools early in the Autumn term.

(Mrs. Gill Simpson) July 1998

To express interest, however cautiously, please give me a ring on 0181 883 8227, or fill in the form below and return it to me as soon as possible:

NAME:

ADDRESS:

PHONE:

CHURCH:

If you would like to give any flirther information which may be relevant, please do so below:

Please return to: Mrs. Gill Simpson, 6 Coldfall Avenue, Muswell Hill, London NlO lHS