Kathryn Kane, Secondary School RE, Chaplaincy and Collective Worship Adviser for the LDBS, suggests 5 actions you can take to support your local school.
You may be thinking that school’s ministry is not possible at this time, after all, at the moment, you cannot physically go into schools. However, you can still serve your local schools and I would like to suggest five ways in which you could do this.
- Think about who is in your church. It is quite possible that there are teachers, members of the school leadership team, learning support assistants, chaplains or school admin staff who are in your congregation. You may want to consider how you can support them, pray for them and encourage them. It may be through an email, phone call or some other act of kindness.
- You may already regularly pray for your local schools during the intercessions in church, but do they know that you uphold them in prayer, or have you asked them what they would like prayer for? Perhaps you could provide a notice for the staffroom letting them know that you pray for them and providing a contact if staff would like specific prayer.
- You could offer to record a reflection for collective worship that could be shown in school or watched together by a class or tutor group. Please ask the school before making a video. If you’ve ever received an unwanted or inappropriate gift you know how awkward this can be so, please liaise with the school so that it is age and context appropriate.
- Consider becoming a school Governor. This is a big commitment but one that can be very rewarding to you and the school. School governors are often unseen but the work they do is vital in the life of the school. You can find out more on the LDBS website.
- The final way you can bless the staff that work in your local schools is to send cake (or biscuits), individually wrapped ones to make them Covid safe. It is a great way to let staff know you are thinking about them and all teachers love cake.