The Importance of Saying Yes
by Callum Ross
I’ve been in post for coming up on seven years and the most important word’s I’ve picked up are “yes, and”. These two words are core in the world of improve comedy, where they are used to keep the storytelling going. In a world where schools are often so short of volunteers as parents and budgets become more stretched the ability to agree to help out in any way possible goes a very long way. As a result of these two words, I’ve found myself being rolled out as the impartial judge for poetry, young musician of the year, and enterprise competitions. All of which I am far from qualified to judge, but I say yes every time I can as it gets me more time to form a bond with the young people, staff, and families.
This willingness to give “non religious” input really has helped to forge a relationship with our schools in the parish and has led to the door being opened for other pieces of work. So when it comes time for us to asking about the possibility of doing new things with the schools they are always much more open to the idea as they know we can be trusted.
When it comes to the “religious side” of things we have two really powerful arrows in our quiver. The first is Prayer Spaces. We are incredibly blessed to be able to go into our schools (both primary and secondary) and talk to the young people about prayer. We take over a space in the school for a week on average and have all the classes join us for a session. They are guided through a number of stations by our team of volunteers as they consider the world, their place in it, and are equipped with ways to handle emotions and situations that they might not have considered before. It is always amazing to see how the young folk react to being given the time to consider these issues and feelings. In the packed curriculum there often is little space for these kinds of reflective practices and it’s great to be able to provide them. It is also great to see how those young folk that would be labelled more challenging react to a different style of learning, but also entering into a teaching space that has been transformed into a restful quiet space.
The second is something that has evolved out of Bible Alive. We blessed to have a team of great storytellers who give their time to go into each of the primary schools in our cluster and share the major Bible stories with the young folk, using a combination of costumes and songs. It is so encouraging to see young people actively wanting to hear what are essentially some of the greatest stories ever told. The greatest feedback we get is that they don’t want us to stop when the four week block comes to an end. We are in the extremely lucky to have a number of retired teachers in our team, who construct and arrange the teaching and materials. Also their being involved grants us an extra degree of credibility in the eyes of the schools we work with.
Whilst I’d love to take credit for either of these things the truth is it is built on three things, God’s blessing, a team of amazing volunteers who push for these initiatives to be brought to our young people, and lastly a being part of a church who are willing to say “yes, and”.
