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PACE Update

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Last week we held our AGM at Trinity Church. We had a great number of supporters, some new to our work, attend and hear all that we have been doing over the past year. After giving an update on the work, we had some time where those attending could wander around and look at each area of our work. We had set up stations for Prayer Spaces, OT Mini, Primary Assemblies, Secondary Work and Christmas in a Box/Easter in a Box. Our wonderful volunteers led these stations and chatted to supporters explaining what they did, what they enjoyed about the work and allowing people to explore the props and resources we use. It was a great event, a highlight of our year and we thank those that came to support us!

We have also been very busy delivering our 17 Leavers Lessons to all schools across the island. With a fantastic team joining us we have really enjoyed speaking to all the Year 6’s who are getting ready to move to secondary school. We met up as a team to go through the lesson and enjoy some Iced Tea in the sunshine. During these lessons we hand out each child an “It’s Your Move” book created by Scripture Union and donated generously by the local churches of Guernsey. These books are full of advice, puzzles, and stories to encourage the children that it’s an exciting move but also allowing them to explore that it’s ok to feel anxious and worried. Part of our lesson tells the children that PACE will be at their new school and that we are a friendly face they can look out for. We are looking forward to September when we can see them again. Please do pray for all students moving to new schools, new classes and new adventures over the next few months.

PACE Update

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This is our final reminder for our AGM coming up this Monday 26th June, 7.30-9pm at Trinity Church. We would love to see you there! Please come and support us and the work we do in local schools.

Last week we held another Prayer Spaces event at La Mare de Carteret Primary School. This has become a yearly event and we love going back! We spent three mornings with the children of Years 2,3 and 4 guiding them through stations and talking with them about prayer and God. It was a lovely few days. We chose these stations:

Bubble Tube
Sorry Sand
Helping Hands
Special Stars
Big Questions

These children really thought about their questions and it was very interesting and quite emotional to read some of them. These children were about 7-9 years old and already have lots of questions about the world! “Why are people so mean?”, “Why do I have to grow up?”, “Can you help me make more friends?”, “How do you know what everyone is thinking?” What an amazing opportunity it was to hear their thoughts.

Prayer Spaces are always so special and we wish we could do more. We would not have been able to do this one or any of the others we do without our volunteers. If you think you might be interested in volunteering with PACE and helping during these events please do email us at hellopace@paceguernsey.com.

PACE Update

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We hope you had a lovely Easter! We are back and ready for another busy term. We have already started an OT Mini course at Vauvert and some of our secondary lunch clubs have started back.

We also wanted to make you aware of the following message from Mark, our chairman.

On 26th June we will be holding our 2023 AGM at Trinity Church.

In recent years at previous AGM meetings I have presented an open invitation for anyone wanting to offer their management/administration/financial skills to PACE to get in touch with me.  Sadly this has never resulted in any interest.

The implementation last year of a new Charities Ordinance has brought into greater focus our governance and the need to expand our committee.
To that end and to give people time to consider their interest in advance of the AGM, I would like to bring to your attention two specific voluntary roles we would like to fill:

– Deputy chairman

To assist the chairman in the overall supervision and direction of the staff committee, acting in his place when he is absent.

– Finance assistant

To assist the Finance officer in the management of the finances, budgets, cash flows, and making of payments.

For more details please contact Sarah Snell by email at sarah.snell@paceguernsey.com who will forward a detailed job specification.

If you are not wanting or unable to offer yourself in this way, we would greatly appreciate your prayers that we fill these roles.
Further to this, we are also looking to recruit a new Schools Worker to join the PACE team. Please find attached a job description and a poster with more information. If you know of anybody who you feel would be suitable for the position, please share this information with them. 

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend!

Spring 2023 Newsletter

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We can’t quite believe that it is nearly the Easter holidays! This term has gone very quick! Each term we send out a newsletter detailing what we’ve been up to and informing you of any important events. Our Spring Newsletter is now available to be read! Please take note of the two important dates. Our AGM will be held on Monday 26th June, 7-9pm at Trinity Church – we would love to see you there!

We also have an OT Live event later in the year on Saturday 18th November, 10am-4.30pm at Les Camps Methodist Church. After a popular event last year with NT Live and OT Live in 2019, we wanted to bring this amazing day back and give more people the opportunity to experience interactive and engaging teaching on the Old Testament and also see what we are teaching in the primary schools.

We hope you enjoy reading our newsletter and have a lovely Easter!

PACE Update

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Our current Primary assembly introduces a fairly new puppet to the children – Roxy! During the assembly, she learns about why we call Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day. She also learns what Lent is and why some people give up something they really enjoy (not cabbage!) for 40 days to remember all that Jesus gave up. She decides to try and give up peanut butter! The children have loved it! At one school we heard a child call out, “Can you do more?” after we had ended the assembly! At that school they also walked out saying “I’m going to Lent my TV!” or “I’m going to Lent my iPad!” We thought it was a great phrase!!

Lisa and Howard Davenport have also really enjoyed working with a group of Year 9s on a module for their ASDAN qualification. This year the students led an assembly on the story of Jesus and the paralysed man. The students focused on how it is important to help people and be a good friend like the men in the story. The performance went well and the students watching enjoyed taking part in the different elements of the assembly. A big well done to all that were involved.

Easter in a Box is continuing very well, with lots of positive feedback from both the children and teachers. We’re really enjoying delivering these lessons and exploring the Easter story with them.

PACE Update

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After a nice half term break we’ve got straight back to business this week. We’ve started 4 OT Mini courses – 3 at Vale led by Tom and Frances and Lisa and Bryan. Nigel and Sarah are at Forest. 

Our Easter in a box lessons started on Tuesday and so far we’ve been to La Mare, La Houguette and St Martins delivering this fun, engaging lesson to Year 4.

It’s been great fun and we’ve had some lovely feedback from teachers. They love the engaging format, the interaction and thoughtful activities. Below are some photos of the children busy during the activities.

Over the rest of this term we’ll be delivering these sessions with our wonderful volunteers to around 300 children! It’s an amazing opportunity to share the Easter story with children and explore it with them. 

We also just wanted to let you know that due to various reasons Alex has decided that she would like to continue with PACE in a voluntary role rather than a paid position. We’re really happy that we will get to continue to work with her in this way. Please do keep Lisa and Sarah in your prayers. 

Hello 2023!

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Happy New Year! Can you believe we are in 2023?! Although the weather may be a bit miserable, we’re very happy because we have a wonderful new team member! Alex Contreras joins us with a background in teaching and youth work. She is very involved in the Catholic churches and has three children. We’re so pleased Alex has joined our team and she’s already getting stuck in with our lunch clubs and assembly planning! Thank you for all your support and prayers in our search, we knew God had it all in hand!

Our wonderful volunteers are also getting stuck in this term with six OT Mini courses being taught a week in four schools! Sarah-Jane and Eleanor are leading La Houguette, Frances and Sarah-Jane are at Melrose, Nigel, Bryan and Frances are at Beechwood and Lisa and Sarah are about to start at Castel. We’re so pleased to be able to cover so many schools – we couldn’t do it without them!

We’ll hand you over to Eleanor now for a message about SWYM.

Last time on the blog, I shared that SWYM’s vision and passion is that every child and young person in the South West (and now, in Guernsey!) would encounter Jesus, know him and make a choice to live for more. What is this going to look like in practice in Guernsey?

SWYM’s main strategy is to place trainee children and youth workers with churches, local ministries and schools work projects. We hope to have a cluster of SWYM trainees in Guernsey from September 2023. They would be placed in a local church and hopefully also work closely with PACE so they can get experience in schools.

Trainees will have a great support network on island, including their line manager, mentor, and support from their peers and the area co-ordinator at a weekly cluster meeting. They will also go to SWYM conference in north Devon six times a year to meet with all the other trainees and have training together.

I’d love a bit of help from you all, as PACE supporters based in churches across the island. We are looking for people who would like to train with SWYM.

Do you know anyone with a heart for children and young people who would love to train as a youth and children’s worker? The initial commitment is for a year on the ‘Be Transformed’ year but there are then opportunities to progress, including to degree level. Many trainees, but definitely not all are in the 18-25 age bracket. A potential trainee could be also someone who would like to retrain, or someone who has recently retired and is ready for a different challenge.

Please, have a think and pray and if anyone comes to mind, have a chat with them and suggest they get in touch with me. I’d love to hear from them. eleanor@swym.org.uk

PACE Update

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Last week we had a great time with Chrissie Salmon from Shiloh Church for our Quiet Morning. We spent time looking at how God is our shelter and we can come to him with all our anxieties and worries in life. We focused on David’s heartfelt, honest Psalm 27 where he finishes with the encouraging thought of “I remain confident in the goodness of God.”

PACE have been asked to decorate a Christmas tree at The Rock Community Church so we have been spending our lunch clubs decorating baubles! We’ve encouraged all of our PACE Club members to decorate one or two and write their school on the back. They have got super creative and they look great!

Over the next few weeks our blogs will have input from Eleanor White, introducing the work of SWYM and how we plan to partner with them in Guernsey.

Hello from SWYM!

Hey there, my name is Eleanor White. I’ve recently started working for an organisation called South West Youth Ministries. SWYM partner with churches and other charities to support them in working with children and young people. About 18 months ago, some churches here in Guernsey invited SWYM to explore what it would look like if they were involved in partnering with local Christians. Having me, working for SWYM, but resident in Guernsey, is the latest step in the ongoing journey.

We’re really excited because in Guernsey, SWYM are going to be working in partnership with PACE. So over the next while I’m going to be sharing some details on the PACE blog about what this is going to look like.

I thought today I’d introduce myself. Some of you may recognise me because I’m already involved with PACE as a volunteer, doing OT Minis and helping out where I can. I love working with children and young people and have spent my adult life doing this in various ways, including being the mum to six fabulous children of my own. I live out West, in St. Peter’s, and go to St. Peter’s Church.  I really love being outside and being active. I’m not very good at sitting still; I enjoy a quick game of Banagrams but Scrabble is way too slow.

I’ll be back soon to tell you more about SWYM.

Love Eleanor

HALF TERM!

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Half term has arrived which means the first half term of the first term has come to an end. It has been a very busy half term, with many lessons, assemblies and clubs going on. We have really enjoyed re-connecting with students after the summer break in our lunch clubs and getting to know new students who have joined. This term we have looked at:

– How is the new school year going? – We made paper airplanes and had a competition to see who’s went the furthest. We were thinking about how we are all on a journey and come to our destinations in different ways. 

– Harvest. We thought about what we can do to help others who are in need. Sometimes big issues can seem overwhelming and we don’t think we can do anything. But we challenged the students to think of one small thing they could do that if lots of people did that would make a big difference.

– Lying. We had a discussion around the question ‘Is it ever OK to lie?’ There was a lot of debate around in certain scenarios then it might be OK to tell a lie but usually if it meant you were protecting someone. We concluded that it was better to be honest as that shows more about who we are as a person and a friend. 

– Being brave. This week we have been talking about situations we might need to be courageous in and looking at the story of David and Goliath and where David got his strength from to take on Goliath. 

We really enjoy our lunch clubs and sharing with the students on different topics and hearing what they have to say. Thank you to all our volunteers who make running these clubs possible. We run 7 lunch clubs a week and without the support of local churches it wouldn’t be possible. 

This term we have had one BOLT club start at Blanchelande primary school led by Tom (Catholic Church) and Janet (Vazon Elim). They have really enjoyed getting to know the students and the children are engaging well with the sessions. 

We just want to say a massive THANK YOU to all our volunteers who have helped this term. We really wouldn’t have been able to do the work without you all. 

Enjoy the half term break and we look forward to all the new and exciting opportunities we have booked in next half term! 

PACE Update

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This week Lisa and Howard (Minister at Eldad Elim Church) have been in La Mare High School delivering lessons on Christian views on prejudice and discrimination. The lesson focuses on the example of Jesus and the children look at the story of ‘The Man Born Blind’ (John 9:1-12) and ‘The Woman at the Well’ (John 4). They act out these stories in groups and think about ‘what was the prejudice/discrimination happening?’ and ‘What did Jesus do?’. They all agree that Jesus’ example is one of kindness and equality for all people regardless of who they are or where they come from. The students have engaged really well in these sessions and have enjoyed acting out the stories. We finish the lesson by thinking about how Christians are persecuted for their faith around the world to day and play this video from Open Doors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXB8gx8-Wdk. The students are often shocked to discover that this is happening in our world today. 

Sarah and our amazing volunteers have also been delivering some lessons to Years 1 and 2 on Creation. This is a lovely lesson where we use Godly Play to tell the story of Creation and have discussions about the days. The children then get to create something of their own with Playdoh and we talk about how they feel about it.

Our Harvest primary assembly is going well, with Sarah, Lisa and Tom (Saddington) delivering it to many schools over the last few weeks too. Below are some photos from Acorn House. In the assembly we spell out the word “Harvest” and then tell the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz and rearrange the letters to spell out words such as “starve”, “eat”, “have” and “share”. All to do with Harvest and encouraging the children to think about what they can do to be a kind community and share with other people.

At first, the word is spelt wrong so we have to get into the right order!
Ruth and Naomi had to find food to EAT!

Please keep praying for our work, for the children and young people we come into contact with and the teachers and school staff we speak to.