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Schools Christian Resource Centre
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Well over 20 years ago, Peter Kendrick set up 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.
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Rosemary Haslam is a qualified teacher, and also works full time in developing Primary School work in the Merton area as well as working on Special Projects, e.g. Bible 66 and The Case of the Vanishing Corpse".
She also works with Peter in heading up schools' work within the LCM.
She 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 has spread to other schools.
Ania Cannon who is a full time schools worker in London Borough of Southwark is also part of the team heading up the schools' work.
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In and out of about 20 local schools, Peter and Rosemary support the schools when they are looking at Christianity or morals and values. Their face-to-face work is mainly with Primary Schools, although the resources at the centre try to cover the whole age range.
Ania works in the London Borough of Southwark.
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, sometimes teach songs with a guitar, get the children acting out Bible stories, use worksheets, and see them learn from the concepts discovered.
Peter is currently Chair of the Merton SACRE which decides what children in Merton have to learn in their RE lessons.
Peter and Rosemary are local school governors.
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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.
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The Schools Christian
Resource Centre has
a library area, an area
with comfortable seats
and a coffee bar.
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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 “What do we know about Jesus?”, 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 and supporting the Locally Agreed Syllabus.
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At the Centre in Merton we stock many DVDs, books, A4 photocopiable worksheets, and general categories of resource, including material suitable for assemblies, biographies, illustrated Bible Storytelling books, children's Bible Story videos, Resource Boxes etc.
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The Schools Christian Resource Centre is usually open in term times
during the following hours:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays 3.45pm - 5.30pm.
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In order to borrow resources we run a subscription system at £40 per year for each school.
It is best to phone 0208640 8853 first as there are times when we can't be open at those hours.
Please email, phone, 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!
Other useful sites are:
www.reonline.org.uk
www.lotc.org.uk (Learning Outside The Classroom)
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