The Spinnaker team members are delighted that Christ Church is once more supporting Spinnaker as one of the church’s championed Missions. Sadly, our lack of financial contribution during 2023 was mirrored by other regular supporters and Spinnaker found itself in financial crisis. Generous giving by individuals and others meant that the storm was weathered and schools work was able to continue uninterrupted.
The team in Epsom has had a full year of RE Days, assemblies and a lunch club at local junior schools.
Once again, where some schools no longer need us, other have come forward so the team now works in schools from Epsom to Worcester Park. This means that the RE curriculum for both Surrey and London must be accommodated so the team has had to be particularly ‘agile’ and flexible in designing and presenting RE Days to fit both.
A new curriculum for Surrey Schools also meant that our RE Days must now cover some different modules so ‘Why do Christian’s Worship Jesus?’ has swiftly joined our ‘Why do Christians Call God Father?’ and ‘How does Jesus Change Lives?’ day-long workshops. Each contains teaching, games, quizzes, songs and craft activities and they seem to be genuinely loved by the year group receiving them.
Our seasonal Easter and ‘Moving On’ workshops were complemented this year by a new whole-school assembly, “Unfrozen’ weaving the Christmas Story into the Disney favourite, and proving hugely popular. A weekly lunch club at St Martin’s is also very popular and well-attended.
Weekly assemblies at several schools use excellent centrally produced free materials and resources to support them. During 2023, 39 sessions on ‘It’s Jesus’ were available and this year they are going to be based on the series of School Values which each school holds.
The local team members, led by Lisa Bell, Youth & Children’s Worker at Epsom Baptist Church, feel very privileged to work with young people in this area and are grateful that Spinnaker has been reinstated as a supported Mission by Christ Church.
More information can be found here as well as links to the resources which may be freely used.
Anne Sturton (Spinnaker Mission Champion)
