Schools Christian Resource Centre

For well over 15 years, Peter Kendrick has run the Schools Christian Resource Centre in Morden, Surrey, supporting teachers and schools workers in and around the London Borough of Merton.   In addition he is part of the team heading up schools' work for London City Mission staff who work in schools, whether as their main ministry, or whether as a small part of their overall duties.

Rosemary is a qualified teacher, and now works full time in developing Primary School work in the Merton area.   She works with Peter in heading up schools' work within the LCM.   She also works with a local church's children's worker operating within the Extended Schools provision to offer a weekly club in a local school. This is now beginning to spread to other schools.

 

In and out of about 15 local schools, Peter supports the schools when they are looking at Christianity or morals and values. His face-to-face work is mainly with Primary Schools, although the resources at the centre try to cover the whole age range and he is now working again with the secondary schools.    When taking lessons from the Schools' Christian Resource Centre, they mainly follow the themes in the locally Agreed Syllabus, (London Borough of Merton), but speak and teach from Christian belief and experience. It is sometimes sad to see how little many children know about the Christian faith and Jesus, but exciting to be able to tell Bible stories, teach songs with a guitar, get the children acting out Bible stories, and see them learn from the concepts discovered.   Peter is also beginning again to support secondary schools and their CUs.   Peter is Chair of the Merton SACRE which decides what children in Merton have to learn in their RE lessons.

 

Work in schools by the London City Mission is necessarily sensitive to the fact that many children come from other countries and grow up in families with different faiths.

 

The Schools Christian  Resource Centre has  a library area, an area   with comfortable seats and a coffee bar.

 

The work we do is in teaching about the beliefs of Christians and the festivals they celebrate. Lessons might include titles like: “Why and how Christians worship”, “Why Christians hold as central Jesus' death on the cross”, “What the Bible teaches”, and “Why Christians believe the Bible to be the Word of God”, etc. Other themes dealt with are “Belonging”, “Creation”, “Marriage rites”, “Christianity in the family & Neighbourhood” and “What is Faith?”. These necessarily have to be appropriate to the ages and aptitudes of the pupils.

 

At the Centre in Merton we stock many videos, books, A4 photocopiable worksheets, and general categories of resource, including material suitable for assemblies, biographies/ testimonies, illustrated Bible Storytelling books, 35m slides of the 'Holy Land', children's Bible Story videos, DVDs etc.

The Schools Christian Resource Centre is mainly open during the following hours: Tues, Wed, Thurs 3.30pm - 5.30pm.

 

There is a nominal charge of £1.50 for 3 days for videos & £1 per week for books. It is best to phone 0208640 8853 first as there are times when we can't be open at those hours.     Please email, phone, fax or write and we can send a specific list of our resources according to your needs. You should indicate a theme and age of the children.   Local churches borrow the resources for their Holiday Clubs or "Sunday Schools", although the resources are specifically chosen to be useful for schools.   Schools often look for good websites to find out about Christianity, and the link below leads to an excellent site, accessible both for children and teachers. It is always being updated, and enables children and their teachers to find out about Jesus, the Bible and how Christians live the Christian life. The site contains downloadable images, worksheets, and much more.   www.request.org.uk   Recommend it to your local school!