Welcome back , hopefully the remnants of summer are still with you! We are thrilled to share with you all the GCMT news.
Alongside Jennie’s work in the schools doing collective worship we have been busy asking you what else you would like us to offer. We have included some of the feedback and what we are doing about it as well as some details of other areas of our strategy below.
We are working hard on fundraising and have had some donations that will help us build a new website and logo. This will help us when we apply for funding grants into the future and ensure that our safeguarding and privacy policy are on display for all to see. It will also help you find our contact details. We look forward to sharing it soon! Look out for our new name!
In the meantime, please consider if there are any funding pots you can access to help us. Recent examples are a local school applying for funding getting to buy Godly Play material with the agreement we can use it in any schools.
Jennie and three of our trustees are doing a sponsored walk in October – 13 miles from Methringham to Sleaford. Some of you may know that Jennie had a knee op at the beginning of the summer – that will stop the rest of us complaining about the distance! Can you help us reach our target of £500?
Open the book
Open the Book (OtB) is a project which offers primary school children an opportunity to hear key Bible stories presented by a team of local Christians during Collective Worship. We have been asked by a number of schools if this is something we offer, and we are pleased to tell you that
we are now actively looking for teams of volunteers to be trained and enhanced DBS checked with a view of beginning to deliver in January. If you are interested in having an Open the Book team visit your school then please let us know so that we can ascertain how many teams we need.
Godly Play
Jennie is now an advocate for Godly Play. This means she is an experienced accredited storyteller and is now able to come and talk to your staff about Godly Play. She also supports the regional trainer to provide you with training for this specific type of storytelling, she can’t offer the training in her own right, however. Several schools in Grantham have welcomed Godly Play as part of the life of the school, if you would like Jennie to come to your school please contact us and we will discuss with you how this can happen.
Prayer Spaces in Schools
Prayer spaces are happening in schools all over the country. For a week or a few days, a classroom or a hall is transformed into a place where children or young people can explore faith and spirituality from a broadly Christian perspective in a safe, creative and interactive way. Jennie has been to the prayer space conference and is able to talk to you more about this and assist in setting up prayer spaces within your school, working in partnership with you. If you are interested in us working with you in setting up a prayer space please contact Jennie. We are looking to begin this in Spring 2020.
We continue to review our processes to ensure that we are practicing good governance and are safe to operate in schools.
Our safeguarding trustee has now taken over the reins and is available to be contacted as follows:
Safeguarding Trustee: Rev Nel Shallow
Email: nelshallow@googlemail.com
Tel: 07809 320986
Continuous Development is important to us and we continue to ensure Jennie is up-to-date with all the skills she needs. In the last few terms she has been on a Prayer Spaces training and a Mental Health First Aid Course for Children and Young People. She has completed the Godly Play advocacy training and will be attending ‘Learning the Language of SIAMS’ training in Lincoln Diocese this autumn to help with inspections in Church of England schools. She is looking forward this term to developing volunteer training and mentoring our new volunteer team – Jennie brings with her in this role a wealth of experience in co-ordinating and developing volunteers.
How can you help us?
We are a very dynamic and aspirational team. We seek to serve the schools in Grantham in ways that are helpful and supportive, complimenting the existing good work our children in Grantham benefit from every day. To do this well we are constantly looking at what we can be even better at doing. We thank-you for the feedback forms many of you sent back earlier this year.
In addition to the feedback forms we would love to receive some impact statements that will help us to develop our future work and adjust programmes to suit your needs. They will also provide us with supportive evidence to apply for funding. Please can you write us an impact statement – tell us in a short paragraph how Jennie and the work of the trust has impacted the lives of your pupils and your school over the last year?
Conclusion
Another exciting term for us with lots of new initiatives that we hope you are interested in. We look forward to working with you. Please contact us if you are interested in any of our new initiatives and consider writing an impact statement for us. Thank you