Community Blog

Where good ideas come from…

2012-01-31T10:49:53Z

‘Controversial’ debate about sex ed lessons

2012-01-25T12:29:33Z

A report in the Guardian that struck me as worrying:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/20/nadine-dorries-sexual-abstinence-bill-withdrawn

MP Nadine Dorries wanted sex education for 13-16 year olds to include the option of abstinence, for young people to know that saying ‘no’ is a viable option.

One of the many objections to this came from Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, who said

“abstinence ‘education’ is a dangerously unrealistic and irresponsible proposition for our young people”

“We will all certainly need to remain on our guard against such foolish proposals in the future.”

PAIS SWAP Conference

2012-01-19T16:45:15Z

Turning Concepts Into Reality

14th-16th February, Life Church Burnley.

I had a fantastic couple of days with PAIS up in Burnley last year and am looking forward to returning this year, to speak a bit about creative schools work and to enjoy spending time celebrating God with them.

Download the PDF booking form (with more details about the conference) here.

Self-Image helpful vid

2012-01-16T17:22:59Z

Great for a self-image discussion in all sorts of contexts….lessons, groups etc. Ht to Ian Macdonald of Youthblog fame.
Useful video helping young people see that what they see in magazines is largely false!

A New Generation Update.

2012-01-16T17:18:01Z

Hi all, we’d love to give you a quick heads up about what is going on in the New Generation calendar and the different ways in which we’d love to work together with you guys. So here goes…

EVERYONE NEEDS A BIBLE
To celebrate the end of the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible we encouraged young people to hand out New Testaments for Christmas. This project was a huge success, in all sorts of ways. 16 year old Esther Parkinson of Southport, recently handed out 2000 Bibles to her whole college, including all the staff. The amazing thing was that she raised the £5000 needed herself. She then highlighted verses in them, wrote a personal message in them and wrapped them! Other people however, have handed out one to a close friend. Whatever the number of people, it’s still an important project, as we believe, EVERYONE NEEDS A BIBLE.

FAITH, HOPE, SCHOOL.
New Generation is all about helping young people live out their faith in school and college. We aim to do this by working together with local churches and Schools Workers. One of the resources that we have to help this is our training day, FAITH, HOPE, SCHOOL. The day, in true NG form, is all about equipping young people to do prayer and outreach in their school or college. The day is full of practical and interactive sessions. We cover topics like, “How to fundraise,” “How to pray for your mates,” “developing young leaders,” and many more. One of the best things about the day is that young people get to meet other young people who are going through the same battles and struggles as they are. They get to share their victories and failures. It’s the highlight of our year. This day is not just for young people, we’d love for schools workers and youth leaders to be there too. This year they will be held in Solihull, Manchester and Bristol, during the month of February. Check out the Schoolswork calendar for more info.

ONE FINAL STORY!
Before we sign off we’d like to share just one story of what God is doing in the schools of the UK. Here’s what a group in Nottingham wrote to us in an email recently…

“Since the start of 2011 the New Generation group in our school has grown from around 12 people a week to just over 50 people a week, and 18 people have become Christians! This is not by our own efforts, but by the grace of God.

It all started in November after a time of prayer and fasting. A few of us were really praying to God about our school and waiting on Him to see where He wanted us to go next. We decided that there needed to be a change, and to refresh what we were doing, so we changed the layout of the room. We set up rows of sofas and chairs facing the front…and we changed the structure of our meetings. We introduced a time of prayer, worship and a talk.

We’ve also held different outreaches for Valentine’s Day, Easter, and for the year elevens who are leaving. Some of the events included getting guests in to sing, dance, rap or speak, and we also held a ‘Grill a Christian’ type event where people came and asked us any questions they had. For our biggest outreach so far we bought 15 pizzas and put on an event that drew over 90 people! We used the opportunity to give a final message to the year elevens.

We’re so grateful to God for all that He’s done, and we pray that He continues to work in all the schools around our country. The best piece of advice we can give to any New Generation group is to pray and seek God’s perfect will.”

If you’d like to receive more regular updates about what NG is up to then please just email us at and we will actually answer you!

Card ideas

2012-01-16T13:22:56Z

On our Facebook page, a schoolswork member highlighted several new ideas she has come up with for using the schoolswork.co.uk playing cards.

Here is the list. Either add your own in a comment below, or on our Facebook page here.

“I came up with some extra ideas on how to use the schoolswork cards and thought I’d share…

GO Fish
The person who has to “go fish,” has to answer the question on the card they picked up
The winner chooses one question from their cards that each other player has to answer

War (2 players)
Whenever ‘war’ occurs (i.e., two players put down the same card), both players have to answer the question on the card.
The winner chooses one or two questions that the other player has to answer

Cheat
Either the person caught cheating or the incorrect accuser has to answer the last card that was played

Crazy Eights (similar to Uno)
The player that does not have a matching card must answer the question on the card that was played last
Whoever plays an eight must answer the question on that card

Spoons (or Pig, Tongue)
The winner gets to pick a card from their hand for a person of his/her choice to answer
The loser (of each round) has to answer one of the questions on a number or face card they were trying to collect

Playing card trick explained

2012-01-03T12:21:10Z

There’s been a small surge in sales for schoolswork playing cards over the last couple of days, so I thought I would flag up a couple of useful videos.

Here’s the explanation. See the previous post for the trick without the explanation.

Card tricks

2012-01-03T12:10:51Z

There’s been a small surge in sales for schoolswork playing cards over the last couple of days, so I thought I would flag up a couple of useful videos.

Here’s the trick. See the next post for the explanation of the trick.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T10:36:14Z

A very happy new year to you. Hoping that you have had a good break over Christmas and that today finds you eager for a new term. May God richly bless you as you begin the journey of 2012.

If you’re into making new year’s resolutions, or want to think about how it might be best to achieve them, here’s a great little article from RE Jesus: click here.

Education & schools work update

2011-12-05T21:53:15Z

Headlines from the world of education and schools work:

Sir James Dyson funds £1.4m professorship at Cambridge University: Sir James Dyson has called for a march of the scientists and engineers through British boardrooms as he launched a £1.4m professorship at Cambridge University with a warning that the academic status of inventors is not reflected in the executive world.

Focus on ‘soft subjects’ harming teenagers’ job prospects: Thousands of teenagers are being consigned to the dole queue after leaving school with a poor grasp of the three-Rs, according to a report.

Number of young people classed as ‘neets’ hits record 1.16m: Call to tackle youth joblessness as numbers not in employment, education or training rise 137,000 in the last quarter. Almost one in five 16- to 24-year-olds in England were “Neet” between July and September this year, according to statistics published by the Department for Education. The figure has risen by 137,000 compared with the same period last year.

Musical instrument lessons for all children: All children will be given the chance to learn a musical instrument under Coalition plans to broaden cultural education.

15,000 pupils pass the 11-plus but fail to get a grammar school place: Nearly half of children who pass grammar school entrance exams are turned away because there are not enough places.

British pupils’ social mobility divide is among world’s worst: The chances of British children doing well are more closely linked to their parents’ education than in almost any other developed country, according to a study of social mobility published today.

‘Scam’ milks £10m from taxpayers: Ministers are to order a review of the nursery school free milk scheme, claiming abuse of the system means the Government is being billed up to £1 a pint.

Children to be taught to create software: Schoolchildren will be taught how to create software code as part of plans to strengthen Britain’s technology and engineering sectors, the Government has signalled.

University applications from UK-born students fall 15%: Drop in the number applying follows sharp increase in applications last year in attempt to beat 2012 rise in fees.

Warning over ‘excessively strict’ discipline in UK madrassas: Children attending some UK Islamic schools are being subjected to physical beatings as teachers use loopholes to get around a ban on corporal punishment, according to new research.

Students ‘to sit three A-levels in a day’ under exam reforms: Sixth-formers could be forced to sit three A-levels in one day under plans to radically overhaul university admissions, a senior examiner has warned.

Boys’ GCSE grades dented by football tournaments: Calls for earlier exams as study shows boys score own goal by watching World Cup and Euro finals games instead of revising

Universities to cut fees – by £39 a year: One in five universities have been given the green light to reduce their fees next October. However, the impact of the reduction will be to reduce fee levels across the country on average by just £39.

Labour backs calls for children to be taught about gambling: Gambling addiction support group, Gamecare, says schoolchildren should learn about fruit machines and how to calculate odds. Labour has backed calls for children as young as 12 to learn about gambling in school.

Morrisons forced to retrain school-leavers: The standard of school-leavers is so poor that one supermarket has sent back three-quarters of its recruits for “remedial pre-job training” before they start work.

The Nativity Factor

2011-12-02T15:46:20Z

Why not encourage a bunch of students you work with to come up with a creative telling of the Nativity story? There’s a chance for them to win between £1,000-£5,000!

A new initiative organised by ITN offers young people the chance to get creative with their take on the Nativity. Video entries can be any length between 30 seconds and 3 minutes, and will be judged on 3 criteria: Creativity, Style, and Story.

The Nativity Factor is open to all ages, and there are two prize categories - one for over 16-year-olds, and the other for under 16s. The winning video in the Over 16s category will win a cash prize of £5,000, publicity for their film, and a day spent at our broadcast studios watching live news being aired. There is a separate prize for the Under 16s of £1,000, plus publicity, and a day spent at the ITV broadcast studios watching live news being aired.

To find out more visit www.thenativityfactor.com

Christmas…again!

2011-12-02T14:21:16Z

Moment of honesty…how do you really feel when you hear Christmas tunes start up in the shops and on your local radio station? What first goes through your head when you drive past inflatable santa’s on people’s roofs? What do you do with those promotional Christmas cards you get through the post from your suppliers wishing you ‘season’s greetings’?
It can be all a bit too familiar, and actually, some of those things that come around year after year after year can start to grate on us. Does this leave you feeling a bit like you can’t wait until Christmas is over, or do you long for a fresh experience of Christmas each year seeing it in a new and relational way?

Coming up with a fresh take on the Christmas story each year can be challenging for those of us working with young people. So let’s wrestle with this dilemma together: How about starting off by thinking about how Christmas is different for us personally this year? I think the way we feel about each holiday season can be affected by two things: what else is going on in our lives, and secondly how we can interpret the Christmas story as having meaning, relevant to our lives in 2011.

Taking those things in turn, first let me ask you some questions about what else is going on in your life: Who is important to you at the moment? What are you spending most of your time doing? Who is the biggest influence on your life at the moment? What are you sad about? What are you excited about?...the list goes on, but I think you get the idea. Secondly, let me ask you some questions about how the Christmas story could have meaning in your life in 2011: Taking the idea of Advent and preparing or waiting, what are you waiting for at the moment or preparing for? The birth of Christ is talked about in Scripture as light entering the world…where do you see new light or hope entering your life at the moment? The shepherds and wise men were following a star to guide them through the darkness: where are you feeling like you’re trusting something or someone else to guide you at the moment?

I think when we are able to relate to an event or season we’ve experienced time and time again, in a more personal way, we can then help relate this event to the students we are working with. Ask some questions of your students, through assemblies, lunch clubs, lessons and more, about how themes from the story of Christ’s birth could have an impact for them in a new way this year.

Looking for a Christmas assembly?

2011-12-02T11:16:15Z

Chances are you or someone you know will be doing a Christmas themed presentation of some sort over the next month. Whether it’s an assembly, Christmas lunchtime party, youth group session, service of some sort or even a team celebration, we thought we’d bring our latest ideas and thoughts about how to talk about Christmas into one blog. So here it is.

Ultimate resource links

Firstly, there’s loads of great resources already out there. Rather than list them all for you again each year (and many of them are still relevant), for our ultimate list of Christmas links, click here (but don’t forget to come back to this page after!).

Your experience

Secondly, what are your own thoughts and feelings about Christmas? Here’s some of my thoughts about how we can use our own experiences to impact how we navigate and explore this season with young people: click here COMING SOON! (and don’t forget to come back for more if you’re still looking for ideas!).

Advertising

John Lewis. Let’s face it, they do advertising really well. Last year’s advert had us all glued to the TV during ad breaks rather than turning the sound off and making a cup of tea. Check out the 2010 campaign combined with some of schools worker Matt Turner’s thoughts here. This year’s campaign got us all talking a couple of weeks ago…be honest now, were there tears? Here’s this year’s ad on YouTube (John Lewis 2011)...who wants to have a go at transforming this one? There is a nice way that this could turn into a thought provoking assembly - you know it! (we’ll add the link here when someone comes up with something).

Oh, and if you feel in need of a touch of cynicism and agree with Guardian writer Charlie Brooker, take a read of this: “This year Christmas adverts aren’t adverts, they’re ‘events’. Ghastly events”
(This article also highlights some other classic Christmas adverts from this year, which can all be tweaked to communicate meaning in some way. have fun!)

Church radio ads

As cheesy as some church advertising boards can be at Christmas (who doesn’t cringe when they see “Jesus is the reason for the season”?!), some of the stuff out there is really quite good. Church Ads do a great series of radio commercials and this year’s theme is fashion, with the nativity in the style of a fashion catwalk. It’s worth a listen. Not sure how you would use this in an assembly, but you could certainly divide up the radio commercials between a class in RE and then get them coming up with their own. Take a look at the Church Ads site here: http://www.churchads.net/.

Christmas Number Ones

In the last few years TV viewing around Christmas has become about the winner of X Factor and which couple will beat the rest to win Strictly Come Dancing. The winner’s song from X Factor for a few year’s running claiming the Christmas number one, and the Strictly stars….erm, appearing on breakfast TV sofas. This year there seems to have been a shift and not many young people I know are very excited about who the winner will be this year of Mr Cowell’s dwindling UK show. Strictly seems to have gained a bit of support from this decline in ITV viewing, but is there a gap here for music performers, who release songs throughout the year, play concert after concert after concert, stick it out in the charts through it all, to have a chance at number one? What is it about the prestige of having a Christmas number one that is so important? And what is it that makes a great Christmas number one song. Is it about the lyrics and how much they resonate with our understanding of why Christmas is so important?

How about for a music lesson leading up to Christmas you review all the number ones from the past ten years. Divide the songs up between your class and in groups have them analysing lyrics, genre, etc etc and them have them present their songs to the class (with a segment of music, some background and what the song is communicating). Then have the class vote for their favourite. You could even use the results in a Christmas assembly with a student talking about why this was voted top.

Ok, this is going to be an ongoing blog. I’ll update Facebook when things are added (so ‘like’ our Facebook group if you haven’t already and you’ll get the updates).
If you have your own suggestions to add, simply comment below or on Facebook.

Happy creating time :)

Advent…

2011-12-01T15:57:55Z

Welcome to the start of Advent…to get us started on Christmas ideas and resources here’s a few links:

Jonny Baker’s Advent links

Rethinking Youth Ministry

Advent Conspiracy

The Story of Everything

2011-11-24T14:07:12Z

The big story of the bible is incredible, here’s a little video of the whole thing. It might be a helpful tool to use in schools?

I had to do a timeline of the bible for a Pioneer course I was doing with CMS. I created a short animation with the help of a friend, capturing the whole story.

It seems a shame to hang onto it as I think it could be a useful resource to use in schools and with youth groups.

If you would like a good quality copy to use for free just drop me an email. An early christmas present from me to you ;)

rich@loveluton.org