We’re at the end of term! We hope everyone has a great summer holiday! Our term has been winding down but last week was still particularly busy!

We held our last Prayer Spaces event at La Houguette with the theme of Looking Back and Looking Forward. The school asked for stations that would help the children reflect on what they had enjoyed about their past school year and what they were looking forward to next year as they move up. So we went for some new stations including Resilience Building, where we could think about what helps us to have another go, who do we speak to when we feel a bit low or sad. We then added a brick to make a collective resilience wall! Another new station was Transforming Butterflies. We spoke with the children about change and how they will be moving up to a new year. On one wing they could write something they enjoyed about their current year and on the other they could put what they’re excited about for the upcoming year. They also loved decorating these!

We particularly enjoyed reading what helps the children build resilience with one child writing “Look at pictures of pandas.” Well of course! What a wonderful insight! Others wrote, “Going for a bike ride”, “Speaking to my mum and dad” and “I like speaking to God.”

We also held our AGM Presentation Evening on Tuesday 5th July. It was an emotional evening as we said goodbye to Phil and Victoria, both moving on from PACE at the end of this term. It was wonderful to see so many supporters join us for the evening as we reflected on what we have achieved over the last year and also announcing plans going forward. We are so grateful for all that Phil and Victoria have bought to the team over the last few years and will miss them both!

So we have reached the end of term, with still a few things to tie up and a newsletter to follow, we hope you have a great weekend!

Last Saturday we had a fantastic day of learning at NT Live with our visiting speaker Tom Greene from Walk Through The Bible.

The day took us through 40 key events in the New Testament from “Greece – Language” to “Wait… Christ”. Alongside this we learnt hand signs for each event to help us remember these and the timeline easier. It was very informative, a lot of fun and those that joined us gave great feedback! Keep practising those signs! 

We are also in the midst of our Year 6 Leaver’s Lessons. This year we’re visiting 704 Year 6 students in 18 schools to deliver the lesson looking at Changes, Challenges and Choices. Lisa and Phil have been leading these alongside local church leaders who have also shared their stories from when they moved to secondary schools. Local churches have also generously donated an “It’s Your Move” book for every child moving up. This book includes tips, question and answers, activities, puzzles and is a very useful resource. One fun element of the lesson is the Speed Stack challenge – giving something a try and not giving up. 

Please keep these Year 6 pupils in your prayers as they come to the end of their time at primary school and prepare for September. It can be an anxious, exciting, confusing time as we all know. 

We hope you all had a lovely bank holiday weekend! Say hello to Birdy!  Birdy is helping us over the next few weeks with our summer primary assembly to encourage our children that we are all important, valued and loved and that God cares about us. Birdy gets excited about The Queens Jubilee but sad that he’s not as important as the Queen. We teach Birdy that “…not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it…” We explain that God also asks us to encourage others to know they are valued and loved too. So far Birdy has received a warm welcome from the children!

Before half term we held a Prayer Spaces at Vale Primary where we haven’t hosted one for a long time. It was great to transform a room and see the children’s faces when they walked in and saw the change. We really valued our time at Vale and had some great feedback from the children and teachers. We look forward to going back again soon! The stations we used here included the Sorry Bin, Worry Lillies, Fizzy Forgivness, Quiet Tent and Acts of Kindness. Below are some photos.

Finally we have an exciting event coming up – NT Live with visiting speaker Tom Greene from Walk Through The Bible. This is a snapshot into what we are teaching in your local schools and will also be a valuable day of Bible teaching.
The event is on Saturday 18th June, 9.30am – 4pm at Les Camps Methodist Church. Tea, coffee and biscuits (maybe cake too!) will be provided, but please bring a packed lunch with you. 

Last week we held a Prayer Spaces event at La Mare Primary as we have been doing the past few years. The focus this year was “Being Kind to Others and Being Kind to the World.”

The stations we set up were:

Plastic Planet – where we discussed the plastic pollution in the sea and looked at how we can increase our use of reusable products instead of single use. 
Helping Hands – the children could put acts of kindness into an order, thinking about which they thought were important to them and then choose one to do during the next few days.
Quiet Area – our bubble tube tent where many nearly fell asleep! 
Carbon Footprints – a brand new station discussing how we can save energy in the everyday things and reduce our carbon footprint.
Thankful Ribbons – reflecting on what the children were thankful for. 

The children responded very well to each of these stations and reminded us how aware they are of current issues in the world including the Ukraine conflict. Many commented on being thankful for their freedom whilst thinking of these and Liberation Day. The older children thought more practically about helping with beach cleans, turning off the taps and lights more as well as taking the brave step to be kind to someone when it’s not always easy.  

A huge thank you to the school and to our wonderful volunteers who helped us over the three days. Next week we are at Vale Primary for three days too. We’re very excited as it’s been a few years since we last held a Prayer Spaces there. Please pray for a positive response from the school and children.

We also had a great week at La Mare High School exploring ‘Evil & Suffering’ with their Year 8 – good discussions and some very thoughtful contributions from the 4 classes of almost 100 students. We talked of the mixed blessing(?) of ‘free will’ but left them with the promise that ultimately all wrongs and injustice will be righted with the promise that ‘….God will wipe away every tear’ and there will be ‘no more death or mourning or crying or pain’ as ‘God will make everything new’ (Revelation 21:4-5). Amazing to have the opportunity to share such a message of hope in such difficult and challenging times. This year has seen a new breakthrough at La Mare High as we have so far been involved in teaching Years 7, 8, 10 and 11.