Displaying items by tag: schools

Between April 2017 and December 2019, Kent police investigated 109 children for possessing, or threatening with, an offensive weapon or blade at school. Two children, aged seven and nine, were not prosecuted for knife-related offences because they were under ten - the age of criminal responsibility. The most common age group for suspects was 14- to 15-year-olds. Five adults were also investigated for having knives on school premises. These figures follow similar disclosures by the majority of forces in England and Wales; numbers are much higher in places like London. An October investigation found that thousands of children had brought weapons to school, with some suspects as young as four. Pray for churches, support workers, and social services as they seek to help overwhelmed parents juggling busy lives with badly-behaved children and teenagers.

Election officers have hit back angrily at calls from the education secretary for polling stations not to be placed in schools. Gavin Williamson wanted to avoid disruption to school nativity plays and Christmas concerts, which could clash with the 12 December election. He said that councils would be funded to find alternative venues for polling stations. Election officers have written to the education secretary to express their ‘extreme disappointment’, saying in many areas schools are polling stations because they are well-known local venues and are likely to be accessible for people with disabilities. Often there are not any other practical options.

Christian Unions (CUs) are groups within schools for young people to explore Christianity and develop their faith, usually meeting during a lunchtime. They are typically student-led, sometimes with teachers present, and every group is different. We can pray that this year’s CUs are powerfully outward-looking to their non-Christian friends. May many Youth Alphas be used in the CU meetings. Being a young person who wants to follow Jesus in 2018 is not easy. It is difficult just to survive in their faith through the years of change in their teens. Reaching friends for Jesus takes a serious amount of courage and character. Pray for more parents, church leaders, and youth workers to stand with these teenagers in a show of support and encouragement as they work towards transformation in their school.

The Church of Wales said that during the summer holidays youngsters ‘walk the streets hungry’, and a new approach to help is needed. Child poverty was described as the most serious issue facing the Welsh government. Although the church provides food packages, it is concerned that many children are still missing out. The Trussell Trust distributed 5,382 emergency packages last year, and expects the total to be higher this year. 2,500 children have had meals at 56 schools in 16 areas through a government scheme this summer, and Flintshire council has called for others to follow its lead in giving holiday lunches. The church has called for the £1m spent on this scheme to be used to safeguard community-based activity schemes. Many activity schemes are disappearing because of local authority budget cuts. They propose that the food element could be provided by charities.

Philippa Taylor, of Christian Medical Fellowship, writes on her blog, ‘The Department for Education is drafting guidance for schools which are now required to teach Relationships Education (RE) at primary school and Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) at secondary school. It is seeking views from the public on these drafts before they are put before Parliament and the final guidance is published. This is an important time in the development of sex and relationships resources in the UK. School sex education is intended, for good or for ill, to influence both attitudes and behaviours to improve sexual health. Whether improvements occur very much depends on what is in the curriculum.’

People say Christmas is all about the children - and for Christians, one child in particular. But this year many children are faring badly in villages, towns and cities. Granada ITV news has been reporting on child poverty. Primary school staff spoke of hungry children, and parents collapsing in the school hall because they had not eaten for days so that their children could eat. Those parents were invited into the breakfast club for cereal and toast, and then referred to a foodbank. Other parents are being allowed to charge their phones and wash children’s clothes in the school, because they have no electricity or hot water at home. Coats and shoes are given to children who haven’t got them. The schools reported that they had seen a ‘noticeable rise’ in the numbers of working families who were in this kind of poverty. Mrs May was recently challenged in parliament about 128,000 children being homeless this Christmas.

Recent research suggests that more than a quarter of England's secondary schools do not offer religious education, despite the law saying they must do so. The National Association for RE Teachers, which obtained the unpublished official data under the Freedom of Information Act, says that missing the subject leaves pupils unprepared for modern life. But the main union for secondary head teachers said many schools covered religious issues in other lessons through conferences, citizenship lessons or assemblies. By law, RE must be taught by all state-funded schools in England, with detailed syllabuses agreed locally. The data showed that 26% of secondary schools were not offering RE lessons; 34% of academies were not offering RE to 11 to 13-year-olds; and almost half were not offering it to 14 to 16-year-olds. As more schools become academies, the problem could escalate.

Schools are queuing to hear the message of Easter creatively told in an interactive, child-friendly way. Primary pupils in Doncaster - a town statistically at the bottom of the church attendance league table, at just 2% - have been discovering the amazing story of the death and resurrection of Jesus over the past seven years. Christians around the country have been taken by surprise at the openness to the Gospel now found in the teaching establishments of this northern metropolitan borough – geographically the largest outside London but with a population of only 300,000. For the eighth successive year a project known as ‘the Easter Journey’ is being offered to Key Stage 2 pupils, and Tuxford in Nottinghamshire is also now benefitting. 1,300 pupils from eight schools will experience the unique journey through five stages of the Easter story – Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross and the Resurrection.