When Gillian Burns started as the Youth Worker for John Knox Church of Scotland, a new headteacher started at Stewarton Academy, the local secondary school, at the same time. Prior to Gillian starting in the role, the school had had a good relationship with the church, but with very little input, mainly at Easter and Christmas events. But things took a massive shift when the new headteacher started and Gillian was able to build up that relationship from the beginning of both of their roles

It’s easy to think that when we are serving schools, we need to be looking for the need that is current, the one that needs to be filled right now and reap near instant results. But sometimes filling a need can be pre-emptive of what might be useful for the future, and what could benefit the community and the school in the long run. Kings Church in Inverness is one example of serving and supporting the young people in the schools by setting them up with skills for the future.

Two of the key things to know when seeking to serve a school are your own skills and the needs of the school. How else can you truly serve if you don’t know what they require? And how can you possibly deliver if you don’t know what you can offer them? Paul Beautyman youth worker in Argyll, reflects that it is always better to “under-promise and over-deliver”, as that leaves space for you to give more. Give more back to the students, back to the teachers, and back to the community.

When we see the big partnerships that have formed between schools and churches already, it is easy to forget that these connections must have grown over time. Schools Worker for St. Columba’s Church of Scotland (Bridge of Don), Sue Thomson came into her role when these connections had already been built between the schools and the church but was under no illusion that these partnerships grew overnight. Even in the midst of all the projects they continue to develop, the core of the work is building these relationships, allowing something to grow and investing in the need that they see before them.

Part of the nature of schools work and SU groups is that you will see a lot of young people come and go, but with all the opportunities available to them these days, it can be difficult to find young people who are able to commit. Gillian Orr has been part of the running of Kingussie High School SU group since 2000 and has seen it evolve in a variety of ways over time. In reflecting on the initial forming of the group, it was clear that starting from nothing provided a lot of challenges in encouraging attendance and inviting people in.

Gordon McBirnie has worked for Craiglockhart Parish Church for a number of years, and during his time has witnessed many changes and challenges in the way that the church seeks to serve their local schools. It’s very easy to get discouraged when it seems like our current work isn’t going in the direction we were planning or hoping for. When SU groups are more difficult and there seems to be little that is actually growing, it could make sense to stop with your involvement or leadership in an area of your school. But maybe it’s important we stick around in the difficult times as well as the good times?

Over 30 years ago Steve Younger was appointed School Chaplain at Auchinraith Primary, and since then relationships have been built and opportunities given, so that he is now greeted as a friend of the school. Three decades is a long time to stay engaged and current with any school these days, especially with the rate that staff teams alter. So what are the things that have allowed Steve to stay in this position as an adopted member of the staff team?

We at SYLS set ourselves the task of finding out if Scottish churches had been making use of SYLS, and if so how had they found it. A huge bit of research was undertaken to find some answers. 332 online surveys and 25 in-depth phone interviews later we had some answers to our wonderings! Interested what the research and interviews highlighted?

When Nicole Baker Fulgham founder and president of The American Expectations Project, a non-profit organisation that seeks to close the academic achievement gap in public schools, met one of her fellow faith-based public school advocates for coffee, he recounted a conversation he had with a friend who is a long-time elementary school principal in the Bronx.

Avonbridge United Reformed Church wished to develop a working partnership with the local primary school. This was worked out in a number of areas: elders have been involved in cookery classes for the children; some pupils helped create a raised garden at the front of the church building. The children also designed and painted a wonderful ‘mural’ style painting depicting the life of Jesus in four panels with words summing up what the story of Jesus means to them.