Calling all History teachers!

We have just launched a new workshop in conjunction with our history colleagues in sixth forms. With exam season upon us, we were thrilled to run our new A Level session on the English Reformation in a local sixth form, covering the whole AQA A-level History specification on Religious Conflict and the Church in England, c1529–c1570.

With stimuli drawn locally from Bristol, the workshop is interactive, hands on, and includes a lot of group work. The Head of Humanities said: "It was well thought through and brilliantly resourced…Students commented on how valuable it was.”

The workshop can be done as either one 2 hour session or two 1 hour sessions.

Big Changes!

We have some big changes for the new term. We are so sad to have said goodbye to the wonderful Jess Wilson, who has started a new adventure in Birmingham. We wish her all the very best!

Jess and Sharon teaching a secondary lesson about Jesus as an inspiring figure.

Sharon is now our Charity Director and Lead Teacher and we are excited to see what this new chapter for EC will bring!

Staff Update

We’d like to formally welcome our new KS3 and KS4 lead teacher to the team;

Jess Ottaway

Jess studied Theology at the University of Birmingham before completing her PGCE in RE. She taught for 12 years in secondary schools in Kidderminster, Devon and Bristol, as well as 6 months teaching in India. She is actively involved with her church in Stoke Gifford, especially with the Kintsugi Hope ministry. Jess has two energetic daughters and loves to dance. 

Teach one another

The EC team were invited to lead a part of the all age service on Sunday, at St Paul’s church in Southville, on the theme of ‘teach one another’. We were so encouraged to connect with the community there and talk about the work we do in schools. We also led an interactive time on how as Christians we each have something to teach one another about God, the key is to spend time in the message about Jesus. You can see the creativity that emerged from these activities in the photos below.

We would love to connect with more churches and have now created an all age interactive resource we’d be happy to come and use in your church, so if you are a church leader reading this, get in touch.

Easter

The Primary team have gone all out this year to make sure we have Easter workshops for every year group. Each phase will be approaching the story from a different angle:

• Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) are diving into the Easter story with an egg hunt to discover the treasure of Easter and discovering the story of the resurrection using small world play. 

• KS1 are learning about the last supper and immersing themselves, through food, in the experience of Jesus' last moments with his friends and learning about the Christian tradition of taking Communion.

• Lower KS2 are putting together the jigsaw of 3 key parts of the Easter story and delving deeper into its meaning and how the disciples were feeling.

• Upper KS2 are asking themselves why Christians talk about Jesus' death as a sacrifice and creating some thoughtful artwork relating to Good Friday.

Getting the team back together

September 2022 saw Jess coming back from maternity leave and Chloe staying on with the Primary team, meaning we are now a team of 4! This means two primary and two secondary teachers on our time which increases our capacity for bookings.

So far this year Chloe and Jess have been working on a brand new Christmas lesson so that we now have 4 Christmas lessons for Primary in total:

EYFS Busy, busy Christmas

Year 1 What a noisy Christmas!

Year 2 Follow that star!

KS2 Christmas - What’s all the fuss?

Sharon and Lydia have been busy delivering Mission and Evangelism at a brand new Secondary school and creating a new KS5 lesson called Is Bonhoeffer’s teachings relevant for Christians today?

The team

Clockwise from bottom left: Chloe, Lydia, Sharon and Jess

Returning to Secondary Schools

January has seen a significant rise in bookings from secondary schools and we have been busy planning new lessons as a result.

GCSE

• We have revamped our Mission and Evangelism lesson to include personal testimony and Q&A with a Christian missionary.

• At the request of a local secondary school, we have created a new lesson on Charity, that raises the question of how Christians should use their money and discusses whether Christians should be rich.

A-level

• We’ve been busy recruiting volunteers to join us in sharing personal testimony and lived experience as part of our new lessons; The person of Jesus and Religious Experience.

Key Stage 2 Christmas Lesson

Our new Christmas lesson has been very well received by primary schools this term:

I just wanted to send a message to say thank you for the workshops with Year 3 yesterday. I have been round to talk to the classes and teachers and the feedback was unanimously positive. I thought I would share with you my personal favourite comment from one child who often struggles to engage with learning:

"It was so intense and so exciting. Every time something happened it drilled it into my head. I definitely understand it all better now."

Every child I spoke to was able to talk at length about what they had learnt and what they enjoyed about the session.

Thank you so much!

Would you like to join us in the classroom?

We are currently recruiting volunteers from across the city to join us in teaching primary pupils. Many of our lessons involve craft activities and require a few extra pairs of hands. It's very easy to volunteer with us; individuals can choose which dates/times/schools work best for them. If you're a Christian in Bristol and enjoy working with children, or would like to gain some work experience of doing so, we'd love to hear from you!

If you'd like to find out more, please email us at info@encounterchristianity.co.uk

Staff Update

We’d like to formally welcome our new primary specialist to the team;

Chloe Sargent

Chloe Sargent has joined the team as our new primary specialist. Chloe studied Primary Education at UWE and graduated with First Class (HONS) in 2017. Since then, she has taught in a variety of schools across Bristol and South Gloucestershire and now works part-time with us. She’s a wonderful addition to our team; she brings energy and enthusiasm to the classroom and is highly skilled in creative planning and resourcing.