Supporting schools during the pandemic
Engage is still going strong after moving online – all glory to God!
We are connecting with schools remotely, so we’re still reaching many students, teachers and families.
The move online is because the places where we used to meet pupils and teachers are all off limits: assembly halls, the rooms where we delivered our Engage & Emerge mentoring programme, and the places we used to gather for Christian Unions.
Your support continues to help us reach hundreds of young people allowing us to share the good news of the gospel and support them in their schools and faith journey, whether this is physically in schools or online, in partnership with local churches.
Engage scene is a Christmas tree winner
Engage was delighted to be awarded first prize at a Christmas tree festival held at St. Peter’s Church, Old Woking, in December.
The church staged its biennial Christmas tree festival despite the need for strict Coronavirus precautions.
The theme this year was “life during lockdown”. It attracted 28 entries from church and community groups as well as families.
The Engage entry was a boxed tableau depicting two schools and a collection of little socially distanced Christmas trees!
A poster at the rear of the snowland scene said: “We may have been socially distanced ‘Zooming’ in – but we are still ENGAGE – taking the Gospel into schools”.
Over 70 family groups toured the trees over the weekend of the festival and voted for their favourite Christmas tree. A collection raised funds for Woking Hospice and the St. Peter’s fabric fund.
Digital Christmas Assembly is a hit!
In December 2020, we shared our first ever online Christmas Assembly for primary schools with over 33 schools in Woking – and it also went as far as Honiton in Devon and to Cambridgeshire!
The children and staff thoroughly enjoyed the retelling of the Christmas Story and the hope and joy it brings. It also included some bloopers at the end and a panto donkey to bring extra laughter.
The video was also enjoyed by many adults.
Bisley C of E School sent these comments:
“Your assembly was amazing. I liked it because it was about Christmas and it was about God: don’t forget Jesus is God on Earth. I really liked the funny bits at the end”.
“I liked that they tried to recreate the story of baby Jesus and all on different cameras. It was very cool”.
“My favourite bit was the end song”
Our Christmas Assembly was also seen by people at Lambeth Palace, which commented: “I thoroughly enjoyed watching your assembly, and was very glad to hear that you had been able to send this to your local schools.
“What a fantastic way to bring the Christmas story to life”!
Where we are now
Get ready, movie time is coming again soon!
Our Easter Assembly is in production with an all-star cast and is due for release on 1st March 2021. See the trailer at here.
Lockdown this time around presented Engage with different challenges, yet God continues to be faithful in showing us new ways of doing things so we can share the Easter story. The assembly will not only be shared with schools but also with churches and other charities who also operate in schools.
The Christian Union at Woking College has moved online and we continue to meet with students to pray, share, learn and gain encouragement from God’s word and what it means in our lives today.
We are spending time praying, looking forward and planning how to deliver “Its Your Move 2021” for the Year 6 pupils in all the primary schools we connect with. This is a really important time for them as they look towards moving up to Year 7 in September. We will keep you posted on developments.
Without your prayers and financial support none of what we have done, are doing or plan to do would be possible.
- If you would like to support us financially or find out more about what we do please go to our website www.engagewoking.org or follow us on Instagram: @engagewoking
Engage & Emerge
In secondary schools our Engage & Emerge mentoring programme continued at Woking High until recently.
We have supported and continue to support students with many issues. Most of these are a result of the pandemic, reflected in the impact it has on their lives both at home and at school.
Sometimes we are asked “How do you cope?”, which is when we have the opportunity to share that “It is hard for us too, but we hold onto our faith in Jesus”.
We continue to support students remotely through developing well being resources for the school to use.
Get Involved!
Perhaps you could become a Trustee of Engage and help shape the future of our work.
Maybe you have a heart for taking the Christian message into secondary schools or Woking College and would like to join the Engage team in running Christian Union meetings.
There are endless possibilities –just some mentioned here! Whatever your skills and gifting and the amount of time you have available, we would love to hear as we plan for the challenges of the academic year ahead!
For further information or for a chat please contact our Schools Worker Shelley Blunden on 01483 901891 or email office@engagewoking.org.