Aileen Christie, Outreach Worker at St Serf’s Lochgelly Benarty, shares how delivering the Bible Alive programme has strengthened her relationship with her local school communities and helped developed new areas of work from reading grannies to community lunches

Over the last few weeks of term time 260 pupils and staff from both Loudoun-Montgomery Primary School and Glebe Primary School journeyed round Fullarton Connexions’ forest trail, ‘Emmaus Maze’. The maze invites children to step into the Emmaus journey and to see the difference Jesus made and continues to make in our lives.

As well as encouraging pupils to take the lead, the project helped school staff understand pupils priorities and hear the types of activities they were most interested in directly. The project gave pupils a voice and encouraged their active participation. It encouraged creative thinking, introduced democracy, promoted team work and provided the opportunity to learn simple budgeting

As a school chaplain the project was an excellent way of building relationships with children ahead of their move to high school and a great way of supporting the wider work of the school. It’s a fairly easy project to manage and run, and pupils had a great time taking part.

As the cold weather sweeps across the country and temperatures plummet, Gordon Roy shares an excellent example of how his congregation (Blackford Parish Church) are partnering with their local school to provide community lunches and a warm space for local residents.

Rev. Neil Urquhart reflects on a powerful and moving Remembrance assembly with Greenwood & Irvine Royal Academy students & staff. The event was particularly poignant for the Syrian & Ukrainian pupils present, for whom the wrenching and ripping violence of war is all too raw and real.

Twenty-two years ago, a group of church youth leaders in rural Berwickshire met to pray about the decline in the number of young people attending their churches. By the end of that time of prayer, they all felt that God was telling them to go into the places where the young people were - their schools.

The challenge of supporting our local school communities over these past few years hasn’t been simple or straight-forward. In the midst of lockdowns and extended periods of home-learning, many churches found their relationship with their local schools disappear all together.

While social distancing measures remain in place, churches across the country are continuing to serve their local schools in new and creative ways.

Glasgow’s Pre-Loved Uniforms was formally constituted as an SCIO in March 2020, but the work started in 2017 when Donna Henderson, member at Tron St Mary’s Church of Scotland, set up a uniform bank in Balornock, Glasgow. Donna wanted desperately to make a difference in her community and with her own three boys attending the local primary school, helping support nearby families became a priority.