Workshops
A key focus of each Learning Hub is to strengthen the school-church-home connections in a local area. The local church plays an important role in this and their investment in the local school can have a significant impact on the local community. For example, one church leader worked with Tony in school to create a Mystery Play on light in the darkness, which was then performed in the local church, and the children’s families were invited to come and watch.
Tony has been working with schools to share the Gospel creatively for many years, so he brings a lot of experience and creative ideas. Tony has written all of the workshop materials, going into schools with clergy to model these workshops and encourage the clergy to take part. The hope is that, through this project, clergy grow their confidence in schools work and are then able to use and adapt these workshops for future sessions.
Hear from two young people why they think the church-school partnership is important.
Tony & young people acting out workshop on Peter & John at Beautiful Gate.
Use of Q&A in schools.
The workshops developed by Tony are intended for use in the classroom and church. Some common techniques in the workshops include: call & response, repeating phrases, getting children into character, asking questions throughout, simple prayer, recap at the end.
A key theme for the workshops is encouraging the children to step into the story, learning through creative methods such as acting, poetry and artwork. These workshops are planned to link in with church and school calendar themes, such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Workshops have also been written for specific school calendar events, such as anti-bullying week (The Good Samaritan) and mental health week (Elijah).
Naburn Nativity
Elijah Workshop Recap
Tony Bower