Today is the last day of term, so we wanted to post our Summer newsletter summarising all that we have been up to over the last term. With it having been such a short term, it is only one sided this time but still full of exciting news!
As we returned to schools sooner than we’d thought we managed to complete all our Transition lessons with the students in Year 6. We were very pleased to be able to do this and confident that as always God’s timing was perfect. 
We would also like to inform you of our AGM date. Please see the poster below. This will be held on Tuesday 22nd September, 7pm for refreshments with a 7:30pm start at Forest Methodist Church. We hope to see you there!
Thank you for your continued support.
We hope you have a lovely Summer.

It has been a fantastic two weeks as we have been back in schools working with students again. We run weekly lunch clubs in all the secondary schools and we have been able to go back to five of them to have an end of year party. It has been great to reconnect with students after 3 months of lockdown and hear about their experiences and all they have been up too. It is a real privilege to be part of their school journey and we look forward to carrying on with all the clubs in the new school year. 

This week we have also started to deliver Transition lessons with Year 6’s moving up to secondary school. This session looks at the ‘Changes, Challenges and Choices’ students may face as they move to their new school. As part of the lesson we give out a booklet called ‘It’s Your Move’. This is a resource produced by Scripture Union which includes great advice and  encouragement from students and teachers as well as fun activities and thought provoking questions to help students prepare for secondary school! Local churches have bought the books as a gift to their local primary school so we want to say a massive thank you for the 650 books we will hand out over the next few weeks. We also encourage church leaders to come to the lessons so that they can hand out the books and many have taken up that opportunity to meet with the students. This week we have delivered the session at Blanchelande, Forest, Notre Dame and St Mary and St Michael. 

We have also been busy completing our 6 OT Mini courses with various combinations of volunteers and Phil. We had 20 lessons to deliver and we were so pleased to be able to get back and complete the courses. This week we have finished the course at St Mary and St Michael with Phil and Sarah and Hautes Capelles with Phil and Claire Hill. We look forward to seeing the pupils next year for NT Mini!

We’re so excited to be able to go back into schools! Now that we’re entering into Phase 5, we have started to take bookings again which is great. We had a few OT Mini courses that were unfinished due to lockdown so we’re looking forward to completing those. At this time of year we also offer our Year 6 Transition Lesson on ‘Changes, Challenges and Choices’ so going back into schools means we have the opportunity to present this session in potentially every primary school. This is such an important session for Guernsey’s Year 6 students. And we’re so pleased we can reassure them that PACE will be around for them in their secondary schools.

Over the last few weeks, now that we can have real team meetings as opposed to Zoom meetings, we have been looking at some “Big Questions” together. Questions that we may get asked in lessons or lunch clubs during discussions. Sometimes it can be difficult to give a balanced answer, especially when we haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it ourselves. It can also be difficult to put it into “child friendly language”. For example in BOLT clubs, the leaders may get asked questions such as, “How is it possible that God hears everyone’s prayers?” or “Who made God?” Sometimes when put on the spot it can be difficult to have an answer formed so we decided to spend some time together looking at how to respond to these questions. Tim Keller has some fantastic resources that we will be dipping into as we discuss these things as a team. We believe it will not only strengthen our work but also our faith and understanding.

You might recall a few weeks ago we sent out a DIY Prayer Spaces pack to our primary schools. In the last few days we have received feedback and pictures from Notre Dame, who set up their own Prayer Spaces room! Have a look at the pictures below. We’re so pleased that this resource was used and helpful to the staff and children attending school during lockdown.

“The staff really valued having the Prayer Spaces available to take ‘wobbly’ children to if needed in addition to group sessions. The worries that the children wrote down were very revealing and gave us all a good insight into how they are feeling and how difficult this time has been for them.” – Teresa Cable (Deputy Headteacher)

For the first time in over two months we were able to meet together as a team (socially distanced) for our Monday meeting this week. It was lovely to be back together in person. Even though it is not looking like we’ll be going back into schools soon we are still working on projects ready for when we are fully back up and running. One of these is producing new leaflets for churches, and schools, both primary and secondary. These will outline the work that we offer and how we can support the schools and students. With Victoria as the new “designer” we’re keeping them consistent and looking smart! You can see our church leaflet below. If you would like a PDF copy of this leaflet or physical copies, please let us know.

A note from Phil… One of the good aspects of the lockdown has been the opportunity of more space to prepare lessons…..and one particular area has been in preparing the new New Testament Mini course. For several years we have been teaching OT Mini, but the 5-week NT course has been ‘on hold’ with no presenters available. However with 8 more OT Mini presenters trained last year, there will now be time to teach NT Mini again, so I have spent the last 2 months putting a course together – involving numerous ‘Zoom conference calls’ to Walk through the Bible HQ as well as conversations with current NT Mini presenters in the UK to share ideas and resources. As with OT Mini, it involves a whole variety of exciting interactive teaching methods including drama, storytelling, role play, PowerPoint, video, music, games, discussion and even ‘magic tricks’; all involving numerous class volunteers to help teach the main storyline of the New Testament – summarised (as with OT Mini) by 40 actions/words which the pupils learn along the way. Sadly, the current restrictions on our physically going into schools means the 3 courses booked for this term have had to be postponed…..but, hopefully, only until the autumn! I can’t wait…..!

As you know, some of our schools went back this week with the rest returning next week. We know that this will be a difficult transition period for both students and teachers as they adjust to new rules and bubbles. Please keep them in your prayers.

We have quite a bit to share with you this week, some exciting developments in our work in supporting schools during this difficult time. We had some discussions with teachers and discovered that what the schools would benefit from was some sort of Prayer Spaces event. However as we cannot go in to deliver this, Sarah put together a “DIY Prayer Space” pack and we sent it out to all the primary schools last week. This was inspired by the Prayer Spaces At Home activities that have been released over the last 8 weeks on.

Looking at the stations that we normally do, we selected 5 that needed little effort to set up but would cover emotions such as; worry, thankfulness, bravery, and encourage children to ask questions and be still in a time of uncertainty. Have a look at our Prayer Spaces Pack and feel free to use at home for yourself or your family. We also encourage you to look at the Prayer Spaces in Schools resources. 

Our next exciting news is that finally we have gone live with Our History page! It’s been long awaited and took longer than we thought it would but finally we have a timeline of how PACE started and key moments that have happened over the last 30 years! Visit Our History page and see how much the work has grown! We have been so blessed and thank God for everything we have achieved. Thank you to every team member who contributed and reminisced over their time with PACE to help us put this together. We pray that the work continues to grow and we can keep serving our local schools.

Lastly, it has been announced that primary schools will start going back on 8th June. It’s great to be moving in the right direction in getting back to some kind of ‘normal’. However we know it will be a stressful, difficult, worrying process for both teachers and children as well as their families. We just ask that you keep all of these people in your prayers. Let’s pray for peace and calm as everyone adjusts to their new days and activities. 

We would also like to share with you this lovely picture that Lisa took last weekend of two painted stones she found at Rousse. One has “PACE” and the other “Acceptance” with a cross for a ‘t’. We don’t know who painted them or why but it was just a lovely reminder that our work in schools with the students has an impact and is being missed. We can’t wait to get back to delivering all our activities and seeing our students!

….and so this uniquely strange term continues! Although we’re currently unable to go into schools of course, we are busy using the ‘time out’ to prepare for our return……whenever that may be! One particular venture which has now become a regular event is focussed on the Y6 leavers who should be moving on to secondary school in the autumn. For the last 2 years we have purchased copies of the Scripture Union booklet It’s your move (1.6 million copies have been distributed to primary schools in the UK since 2001) to present to every Y6 pupil in our local primary schools as a gift from the local churches, and our plans for this year are no different with our biggest project so far – 28 local churches giving booklets to all 640 pupils in all our 15 primary schools – this year including Le Rondin for the first time! Along with this, every school has also requested the one hour transition lesson we offer to explore Changes, Challenges and Choices the pupils will face in the next few months as they prepare to move….                                        As last year, we hope to welcome representatives from each local church to present the booklet at the end of the lesson – Covid-19 permitting!  

So…the booklets have been purchased….the lessons are ready…..we are good to go!! …whenever!

Phil 

We would also like to wish you a Happy Liberation Day! We hope you enjoy whatever your celebrations look like this year!

This term started like all those that have gone before it, with a team meeting however, this one looked like no other in the history of PACE, it took place over the internet on Zoom – the new ‘normal’ for so many people working from home. It was announced last week that Guernsey Schools will remain closed until May half term. This means no PACE activities will be able to take place for the foreseeable future.

We are often asked how many schools there are on the island. There are 16 primary schools and 8 senior schools that we work in. We have designed a map for you to see the location of these schools. Please do continue to pray for the schools at this time.

The team will be taking this time to catch up on admin and to prepare lessons and resources for future activities. Phil is very busy planning and preparing for the launch of a new 5 week New Testament Mini course (from Walk Through the Bible)  which we hope to be able to roll out later this term or in the new school year. Sarah is busy working on our website and we hope to have an updated ‘History’ page to share with you soon. Victoria is keeping busy by creating lots of great visuals for us to use in our work. Lisa has been busy reading and updating the policies… we will let you decide who drew the short straw!! 

Here is a little piece of history as Phil prepares to launch NT Mini. We have been teaching our 5-week Bible courses – Walk through the Bible – since October 2008 and, for those who like numbers, some amazing figures:

First ever course in Guernsey was at Vale Juniors in 2008 where our very own Victoria was a member of the class! (Phil feels very old!)

Since that one course in 2008-9 it became 3 courses in 2009-10; 4 courses 2010-11; 14 courses 2011-12 and in 2012-13; 18 courses in 2013-14; 22 courses in 2014-15; 17 in 2015-16; 23 courses in 2016-17; 22 in 2017-18; 15 in 2018-19 and this current year we hope to complete 17 courses. That’s a total so far of 170 courses……850 lessons…..to 5,797 children in every primary school in Guernsey! Amazing! And with lots of new presenters trained, many more lessons to come! 

We hope you are all keeping well during this time. Thank you as always for your support!

We hope this Newsletter offers some positive and uplifting reading in these unfamiliar and uncertain times we currently find ourselves in.

We would like to draw your attention to our lessons section as we have been busy with many amazing opportunities to explore the Bible with children in Year 5 with a number of OT Mini courses running simultaneously. We’re so thankful for the unique opportunity we have in Guernsey. 

As you are aware the term was cut short and we were unable to complete all that we had hoped. However, we aim to continue when the schools return and so are faithfully preparing for when this happens. 

We may not be able to be a presence in our schools, but we can still pray for all the children, students and teachers that we have seen over the past few months. We ask that you too remember them and those still working or attending school in your prayers.  

Thank you for your continued support.

We hope you have a lovely Easter!

“When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul” Psalm 94:19. 

The last few weeks have been chaotic and uncertain with the situation surrounding Coronavirus changing daily. The guidance and advice had a big impact on our work as we looked to support the schools of Guernsey. Our diary went from overwhelmingly full to nearly empty overnight as many assemblies, lessons and lunch clubs were rightly cancelled. Please join with us as we pray for schools across the Island as they adjust to working at home over the next few weeks. 

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the advice given on non-essential travel we took the decision to cancel our Prayer Spaces Training Day which was due to take place on Saturday 21st March. We hope that this event will be rescheduled for later in the year. 

A weird term, but SO much achieved! Lots of new OT Mini presenters now ‘up and running’ – well done Claire, Eleanor, Frances, Nigel and Sarah-Jane – and, although some courses were interrupted, we have taught 43 OT Mini lessons to nearly 400 children, including our first ever lessons at Le Rondin……. with lots more to come (?!? we hope!) next term. Great comment on our last day of teaching – from a parent-teacher – her son was struggling to come to school through all the uncertainties but she told me ‘he got up and came to school that day because he was desperate not to miss the OT Mini lesson’!! I love it!! – Phil

One set of lessons we were able to continue with was ‘Christian views on Creation’ at Blanchelande with year 9 students. These lessons are always interesting as we discuss with students the origins of the world. We discuss Genesis 1 asking the students to think about what is the most important part of creation and do they think anything could have been left out? One activity involves them putting the days in order using images which depict each day. We set Victoria the task of creating some new images and they are so good we thought we would share them with you. Please see below. 

In the past week we have started our new primary assembly. This time we are looking at food and how we are very blessed to have so much but that there are some people in the world who don’t have as much as we do. We use the story of Feeding the Five Thousand to illustrate how the little that the boy gave and the power of Jesus made a huge difference to many many people. We conclude by challenging the children to do something in the next week to help other people. That could be sharing their food with someone, baking someone a cake or buying an extra tin of baked beans and putting it in the food donation bins. We encourage them that even a little act of kindness goes a long way.

Our many many OT Mini courses are going well and Phil and the team are working hard! Last week for the first time, Phil started a course at La Rondin which has gone down very well with the pupils there. We’re excited to see the developments of this relationship with the school and the children there. St Mary and St Michael’s new course started yesterday which takes us to seven courses running at the same time! Please keep Phil, the team and also these schools in your prayers!

In BOLT clubs we’ve moved on to looking into the life of Jesus. We’ve discovered that he came to do good and this week have looked at why he died for us. Using a bit of science, we show the children how Jesus washes away our sins and forgives us.

In senior lunch clubs we have continued looking at things in the news and have had some great discussions with the students. We have looked at the impact of Brexit, the outbreak of Coronavirus and climate change. As the end of term draws closer we will look at the Easter story and the events that took place over 2000 years ago and how they still have an impact on the world today!