I’ve been thinking a lot about schools work recently. Part of my role for Arun Community Church is to develop a programme of schools work in the local area (the rest of my job is a combination of the pastoral care of young people within the church and delivering a variety of community based activities as part of the Extended Schools agenda). Although I’ve gone into many schools and delivered a variety of lessons, assemblies and support over the years, starting a new programme is an exciting and daunting task.

Some of the key questions I’ve been asking are: “What is the purpose? Are we wanting to provide spiritual (and Christian) input, or simply serve the schools in supporting young people?”, “What can we actually provide? With so many needs and issues, what should we target and where would we be effective?”

I have a few ideas about what the church could deliver for the schools. XLP, Tim Abbott and Chris Curtis (who I’m visiting at LCET next week) have been very helpful in working through some of these ideas. I’ll post more info once I’ve decided on a clear strategy, but in the meantime does anyone have any thoughts or experiences on delivering effective schools work?