Tim Abbott

Sanctum at Colchester Sixth Form College - Friday

Sanctum finished at the Sixth Form College on Friday. The overwhelming response has been positive with comments like "Very helpful. Really makes you think about life" and "Gave a good insight into who I am and who I want to be" as well as quite a few "inspirational", "beautiful" and "amazing!"

Over 225 students took part - this we know from a count up of all those who did the dressing up activity at the beginning and had a photo taken. These are now displayed on the Chaplaincy notice board:

Quite a few students came back to talk more or to do activities again and some popped in for a look without going for the whole "Journey of Life" thing.

So what have we learned?

Chaplaincy and Sanctum. The link with Chaplaincy, in the person of Kathryn who works for us, has been of immense value. Not only has her presence in the college beforehand created a positive expectation around Sanctum, but also Sanctum has enlarged her role and students' awareness of her. Each of these two aspects of our work have been enhanced and supportet by the other.

Space isn't an issue! The limited space on the concourse meant we had to consider carefully what activities we would include. Focussing around just six activities and linking them to the theme "Jouney of life" created a very unified message and an obvious path or flow to the experience. It helped that, unlike in school, we didn't have vast numbers arriving simultaneously although we did have two lesson groups of 15 which was just about the maximum capacity for Sanctum.

Other space. One of the big surprises was how many people used the quiet room which had been beautifully themed but was otherwise left for people to engage with in their own way. It helped that a number of Christians from the college helped set up the room and then made use of it throughout the week.

This was the first time the Christian students had identified the room as somewhere they could pray (it's available at any time, but is rather dull and unattractive!) and it's clear that others also ventured into the quiet room, even if some of their contributions were less than respectful. Some editorial intervention had taken place throughout the week to ensure that what was expressed was appropriate to the context of the room. There was such a strong feeling about the room remaining available in its 'prayer room' format that we extended this part of Sanctum for another week.

An obvious 'journey'. Providing an obvious starting point (the photo and the named luggage tag) and a clear end point (choosing three from the 21 character values) gave us a much stronger opportunity to talk to students about their lives, their hopes and the idea of a God who is there for them. The team, and Kathryn in particular, had some amazing and in depth conversations with students.
The flip side of all this is that once they'd had their conversation about character and completed their luggage tag it pretty much felt like they'd "done" Sanctum and didn't need to return. Some did though, and others came back with friends who they'd persuaded to do it.

The value of personal conversations. The final activity, selecting three character values that you hope to be known by in several years time, provided an awesome opportunity to talk in more depth with students. In many ways this was the most significant aspect of the week. In schools, when dealing with larger numbers, this degree of one to one conversation is much harder to provide for, but this is something we'd like to try to offer in the future.

The presence of Snactum was warmly welcomed by staff up to and including the Principal and we expect to be able to repeat this next year. This was our third year here and it felt as though we'd finally discovered the best way of running Sanctum in the college. And that's one of the fascinating challenges with Prayer Spaces in Schools, no two are the same and there's always something new to learn because each is a partnership between the school (college) and the team delivering it.

Beloved 3

Latest news from the third "Beloved" self esteem course for girls created by my colleague, Amy.

Beloved @ Thurstable: Session 1

 

Sanctum at Colchester Sixth Form College - Thursday

As well as another few dozen first time visits we've had quite a few people returning today to continue their 'journey', which is pretty much what we would expect at this stage in the week. Some students have been bringing friends with them who they think should experience Sanctum and we've also had a few people who came back just to chat in greater depth. There have also been a number of staff who stopped off on their way past to read the student's responses and do one or two of the activities themselves. Being in a public space that is also a through route has been an immense benefit.

Here are some quotes from students today:

• "Like holding up a mirror to your inner self"
• "We greatly appreciate the experience offered! We loved it." (a lovely couple!)
• "We really enjoyed finding our inner-self. Thank you. : ) "
• "Really enjoyed it and really helped me open up from the inside. However, it did bring up some things I couldn't let go."

We're so glad that the format this year creates an opportunity to chat to students like the one leaving the last comment. This is just one example of many today that demonstrate the huge benefit of running Sanctum where it connects with the work of Kathryn, the Chaplain.

Finally, here are some photos of our two prop box friends enjoying Sanctum activities during a quiet moment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Squishy, the octopus, checking out the mirrors activity and Aslan listening to the forgiveness audio track.

Sanctum at Colchester Sixth Form College - Tuesday and Wednesday

The level of enthusiasm and involvement from students and staff continues.

On Tuesday we had lesson visits from two "Theory of Knowledge" groups from the College IB course. Both groups were moving from discussion about scientific knowledge to an exploration of the role that faith may play in understanding and knowledge. We had a great morning with these groups, talking about faith in general, our faith in particular, and introducing them to Sanctum. Kathryn, our Chaplain at the college, also shared her story of how she became a Christian from a very sceptical background and the experience of God that completely changed her life. These groups were a real privilege to connect with and some of the students subsequently came back to spend more time at Sanctum

As with Monday, the prayer space in the college quiet room continued to fill with prayers on all four walls. There is already a strong movement to keep it open in its current form beyond this week, such is the enthusiasm for a constant prayer space within the college.

On Wednesday we once again had a steady stream of visitors - we think we're getting about 50 a day. The most accurate way of gauging attendance is by counting the number of people in the photos we take of them at the beginning of their visit, though there are always others who are making a return visit. We take the photos as part of a fancy dress activity introducing them to the idea of a life journey. These photos are printed out and pinned to the Chaplaincy notice board to demonstrate that we're part of a community on a journey together. Obviously these photos are taken with permission of the students (only 4 have said no so far!) and are not for any other use, so I won't be posting them anywhere.

But here's an example, showing our Chapain, Kathryn (unrecognisable as Mickey, or is it Minnie, Mouse!) and our friend Ruth who was helping today. Also, Aslan, who is helping us for the week.

In a first for us, this Sanctum has a definite start and finish point for each visitor. The fancy dress photo is the introduction and writing your name on a luggage tag is the start. Students then circulate among the six activities (the fewest we've had, but limited here by space) before checking in with one of the team again to do the final 'value cards' activity, described on Monday. This is a guided activity and it's defintely giving Sanctum so much more depth in creating opportunities for some amazing conversations and, for some students, a kind of basic life-coaching. It feels as though we've stumbled upon something really powerful and I'm looking forward to developing this in the next Sanctum we run, which is back in a secondary school. 

Sadly, the College has been rocked by the tragic death of a student in an accident on Monday, and today the whole college observed a 2 minute silence. It's been a privilege to be in the college, to be able to share in the grief, and to have team members available, Kathryn in particular, should any student (or member of staff) want to chat, even if briefly. Some have, and a few prayers have appeared in the quiet room prayer space.

Here are some of today's visitor book quotes:

• "I will try to express problems in more comforting ways and look at everyone in a positive light."
• "Really helped me reflect on what's happening. Made me think."
• "Gave a good insight into who I am and who I want to be."
• "Touched me in ways I've never felt."

 

Sanctum at Alderman Blaxill School

We've had a wonderful week running Sanctum at Alderman Blaxill School. This was our eleventh Sanctum and the second at the school after a long gap of over 2 years. Our week was marked by some wonderful students, many enthusiastic staff and quite a few visitors, of which more later. We were delighted to have the use of a currently unused upstairs art room which gave us lots of space and, with windows on both sides, lots of light and a sense of praying over the school.

We made a slow start on Monday, finishing the set up by break time but having no classes, so only a few students through at break and lunch time. From Tuesday things became much busier and over the week we recorded over 300 visits.
On Tuesday we welcomed our first visitors, two OFSTED inspectors who were part of a team visiting the school on Monday and Tuesday. They seemed to enjoy their visit, asked a few questions and one did one of the activities (Identity, a narration with mirrors that looks at how we see ourselves, how others see us and how God sees us.) After 15 minutes they were off to another class. How had we done? Apparently they were talking enthusiastically about Sanctum when they met their next teacher.

Later we were joined by friends from Oxford, Paul Sparrey and Catherine Clayton who is part of the Prayer Spaces in Schools team and is developing prayer spaces in Oxfordshire schools. At lunchtime the room was full of students getting stuck into the different activities and we also had a few popping in after school.

Every school where we've done Sanctum seems to have a trend that emerges through the prayers and reponses posted around the room giving a sense of the big issue that's on the heart of the students. By the middle of the week the thanks posted on the Thankful activity, the apologies written on the Sorry cards and the prayers on the Prayer Wall all pointed to relationships with family as being what mattered most to these young peope. As well as the usual ups and downs of family life, many of these young people have fathers in the army serving in Afghanistan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday we had more visitors, this time from our next door neighbours, CYO Braintree, who were in o have a look at how we run a prayer space in school. With them was an RE teacher who has been doing creative work with her groups on spirituality so we were able to swap stories and resource ideas whilst watching over another day of classes and busy break and lunch times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moments that made us smile during the week included several linked to the Identity activity, one boy emerging from it declaring, as if to the whole room, "That was amazing!" and a girl similarly pronouncing, "Wow! I feel so loved and accepted!" As ever, the quiet tent was hugely popular, though the students were generally very good at keeping to no more than two people at a time. We also encountered some challenging moments - foreign students with barely any English language skills; a girl who seemed to find it impossible to focus for more than 30 seconds who just ricocheted from activity to activity until finally being captivted by the Identity activity. I spent most of one lesson chatting to two Year 9 boys who were both utterly convinced there was no God, and seemed capable of declaring any of their views as incontrovertible fact and therefore any other view was stupid. Although there was no appropriate opportunity to raise it, I sensed in their bravado a troubled childhood, confirmed later by a teacher.

And so to Friday, today's visitor being Emily Hannah from Christian Youth Ministries in Ipswich. CYO and CYM have had a long partnership and we seem to be visiting each other quite a bit at the moment, swapping ideas and being inspired by each other's work. Just one class today and the usual busy break and lunchtime. After lunch Amy and I packed it all away and squeezed Sanctum back into our cars to take everything back to the office

For Amy in particular it has been a significant week as it builds on the pastoral work she has been doing at the school and at a stroke defines her role more obviously as Chaplain. She will be back next week and from some preliminary discussion our hope is that she will be able to continue a Sanctum like experience for students one lunchtime a week.

 

Doing God in Education

Theos, the public theology think tank, have just published Doing God in Education, written by Professor Trevor Cooling, the Director of the National Institute for Christian Education Research at Canterbury Christ Church University.

The report is a response to the argument that education should keep faith out of school because of the belief that human knowledge and rationality are objective and therefore independent of the “clutter” of religious beliefs. Whilst this view has a veneer of common sense, it excludes the life and faith experiences of huge numbers of people whose knowledge of what it means to be human have been constructed from within a belief framework, nurtured into a worldview from the earliest age. Instead of excluding god from education, Professor Cooling argues for an inclusivist approach that recognises the contribution that can be made when diverse worldviews are regarded as a precious resource.

He writes:

“Doing God” is therefore a strategy for promoting inclusive education that draws on people’s beliefs in the cause of the common good, in contrast to the anti-inclusive strategy of excluding God, which implicitly indoctrinates pupils into the idea that religion is “the problem”. On this view public theology, understood as religious communities developing positive theologies that enable them to contribute as full partners in public life, should be actively encouraged in the cause of the common good.

Social networking 'damaging school work' say teachers

Well... further to my previous post, the BBC reports that in a recent survey of 500 teachers half of those who took part said children's "obsession" with social networking was affecting their ability to concentrate in class. One in four said they believed children with the poorest grades in school were those who did the most online social networking.

I wonder, is Social Networking principally the cause or a symptom of a more distracted society. Competition for our attention is immense - we have more channels to watch on TV, there's more advertising, most of us have mobile phones, we shop more, we live in more socially fractured homes and generally live life at a more accelerated pace than previous generations. Social networking is just one part of this whirlwind of diverse activity, this multiplexed existence and although I feel sure it plays a contributory part in our lack of focus or concentration I think it's just one aspect of a bigger picture.

What fascinates me is that when we run a Prayer Space in school, one of the most popular activities is the 'quiet tent' - a place where students are invited to relax and be still. Some come back repeatedly at break times and lunchtimes. Some are reluctant to leave. The experience of peace and stillness seems almost to overwhelm them, to catch them by surprise.

On being CRB'ed for schools

In the last week we have had all of our team members CRB'ed for work in one of our favourite local schools. I posted a tweet about this, "Having the whole team CRB'ed for a school. It's not bureaucracy, it's belonging" which raised a number of positive comments and also some questions, so I thought I'd explain further. If you work in schools all this will be (should be) obvious, but you never know...

We have a very strong relationship with all the schools that we work with. So far they have been more than happy to have us in on the strength of the CRB checks we have done for our organisation. No activity is undertaken without being under the supervision of a member of staff, though for things like lunchtime groups or Sanctum this doesn't mean that member of staff is always present. We realise that this is an arrangement based on a strong relationship, positive history and trust on the part of the school, but it is up to them to make this decision. I know of other school workers who have had schools insist that they are CRB checked by the school before they come in to do anything, accompanied or not. I would add that there are schools, and the Sixth Form College, where, rightly, specific members of our team have been CRB'ed for their mentoring and chaplaincy roles.

However, my view of such matters was changed not by a school that wouldn't otherwise open its doors to us, but by one of the schools where we have always received a warm welcome and been able to do just about everything that counts as responsible schools work for nearly 20 years. There is a huge degree of trust and in many ways we are part of the team there. We are in the process of setting up a new lunch time group (about the fourth one we've run over many years) and during preparation for this we recognised that for much of the time we would be working without the direct involvement of a member of staff. As a result we asked that our team be CRB'ed by the school; something to which they gladly agreed. For us this marks a new level of 'belonging' within the school as this will create a semi-formal arrangement that gives us greater freedom to work with young people.

I now believe this should be our standard procedure with schools and was in the process of setting up similar arrangements when we learned that Essex County Council have in place a system whereby people CRB'ed for one school can work in other schools under the same CRB. All that is required is that you complete a form and present your Essex CC CRB and photo ID and within about 48 hours the school receives confirmation of your CRB check.

As schools workers we want to work to the highest standards, but there's always been the issue of CRB checks and the problem that, officially, they are not 'portable' (pending some revised Vetting & Barring scheme). The reality appears to be that most schools are prepared to recognise a CRB certificate as though it were portable. Whilst grateful for their flexibility and trust I've come to the conclusion that asking the school to CRB us isn't bowing to bureaucracy, but saying we want to belong, we're accountable, and we're here for the long haul.

The Classroom Experiment

The Classroom Experiment is a two part programme coming up on BBC2 at 7pm on Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th September.

Professor Dylan Wiliam, deputy director of London University’s Institute of Education, gets to test his theories on a class of Year 8 students for a term with apparently surprising results. Not asking students to put their hands up, which tends to favour brighter more articulate young people, seems to be the attention grabbing headline, but there are other strategies that challenge conventional thinking and seem to have a positive effect.

Squeezing out spirituality

One of the reasons we run Sanctum is that we believe passionately that young people are naturally spiritual; it's just that life progressively squeezes it out of them. Children engage naturally and easily with opportunities to be spiritual and to reflect on spiritual things. Young people less so, but it's still there. But spirituality is not something that people "grow out of", like belief in Father Christmas, as if it's a right of passage to adulthood. We know this because of the number of people that become more spiritually aware as adults, one example being the number who become Christians as adults from a totally non-Christian background (like me).

Sanctum (and other expressions of prayer spaces in schools) are about re-awakening the spiritual pulse that beats within children and young people, be it ever so slight. We're seeking to give young people a glimpse of the connection between the spiritual and their everyday experience. So much of our schools work is simply passing on information about God - our great hope, or vision for a prayer space is that young people experience something of God.

Anyway, all this is by way of preface to a fabulous post by Dave Csinos, among other things a researcher of children's spirituality, titled Educating out spirituality. He writes:

So, spirituality isn’t something that we achieve—it’s a gift from God that is woven into the very fabric of our innermost being. We can provide opportunities for children and youth to have spirit-to-Spirit connections with the One who gave them the gift of spirituality. Spirituality is something that can change, grow, and form. But it can also wither and fade away. To paraphrase Robinson’s words “We don’t grow into spirituality. We grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it.”

The whole post is relevant not just to the work we do in schools, but to the way we help our children and young people to grow in their relationship with God.

[h/t Youthblog]