The Heatons Churches Partnership has agreed to set up a project to extend the work that churches are already doing in the local Primary schools.

We are proposing to employ a schools worker so that we can support more schools and provide more resources to them. This would be funded partly by the churches but also by asking individuals if they would be prepared to commit to regular giving.

The history

For over 100 years there have been links between some of the schools and churches in the Heatons. This has provided valuable Christian support and input to those schools. For example, the Anglican team has built links with Whitehill Primary (LEA) as well as continuing its long history with our faith schools.

In the late 1990’s one of the local churches, in recognition of its need to reach out into the community, employed Stephen Innes as a community worker. His work began to open up opportunities to do assemblies in some of the local LEA schools, which quickly developed to the point where Marian Evans joined him in this growing work. They continue to work together and now take assemblies at 3 LEA schools: Didsbury Road, Mersey Vale and Tithe Barn. In recent years there have also been invitations into St Winifred’s and Norris Bank schools.

The local schools work currently consists of:

• taking assemblies
• taking series of classes based on Christian topics
• providing schools and teachers with Christian resources
• planning and leading acts of worship with schools held in local churches
• arranging several Christian projects with the schools
• providing pastoral support to head teachers and staff.

There is also a transition programme to assist Year 6 children as they prepare to move to secondary schools. Having started with just one school, this has now built up to a point where the program is currently taken into 6 of the primary schools in the Heatons. This program is delivered by Christians in Schools, Stockport.

The Heatons Churches Partnership recognises that there is an increasing opportunity for the churches to be an even more integral part of our community.

The vision

The partnership has agreed to make this a reality by raising the funds to extend our existing work and employ a schools’ worker.

Our dream is:-

• that we seek to spread the work to other schools in the Heatons and to support, where invited, the work already going on in church schools.
• that we extend the opportunities for children to learn more about the Christian faith through activities such as lunch clubs.
• that each school in our community is linked with one church. That church will make a commitment to actively support the school and the Christian work there.
• that the churches foster their own relationships with the schools so that when the worker moves on, those relationships continue.
• that we make the Christian faith accessible in an exciting and attractive way.
• that we commit to employing someone to head up the work in our schools, for an initial minimum of 20 hours a week, rising to full time within 5 years.
• that the worker will visit (but not necessarily be involved in) all children/youth activities in the Heatons’ churches on a regular basis.
• that the worker would be fully supported by all the churches in the partnership but would be employed by just one of them.
• that a management group, drawn from a number of churches, would oversee the worker’s role.
• that a separate group would be formed to support the worker both practically and spiritually.

Set up costs

We have been advised that the cost of the salary, training and resources required to meet these goals, would be around £15,000 in the first year, rising as hours increase to full time.