Chaplaincy Project News
Steve Younger writes with updates on the National School Chaplaincy Initiative.
On 22nd October CVE launched the National School Chaplaincy Initiative. The event was held at Denny High School by kind invitation of Stephen Millar (School Leaders’ Scotland). Andy Bathgate of Scripture Union Scotland chaired the meeting which also heard an address from Joe Walker (Curriculum head for RME and Philosophy, Education Scotland) speaking on the place of ‘Time for Reflection’ within Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. Other contributors included Angela Lockhart (Deputy Head, Calderside Academy), and representatives of CONNECT and of local schools.
Steve Younger shared the findings and recommendations from his doctoral research into ‘Time for Reflection’ and spiritual development within the Scottish school curriculum. This highlighted the findings from interviews with parents, policy-makers, practitioners and pupils across Scotland concerning their experiences of Religious Observance. Time was also spent in small group discussions centred around key issues and questions: What would training and accreditation of school chaplains look like? Share an example of the best ‘Time for Reflection’ event you have experienced. What problems have you encountered with school chaplaincy and ‘Time for Reflection’? Where does Time for Reflection fit within Curriculum for Excellence? What resources would you recommend for chaplains and staff to deliver quality RO/TfR?
The event was followed immediately by a ‘tour’ of the north-east of Scotland in partnership with the Church of Scotland ‘Guilds Together’ roadshow. At Forfar (23rd Oct.), Fraserburgh (24th Oct.), and Stonehaven (25th Oct.) each day began with input to the ‘Guilds Together’ meetings.
The aim was to encourage a strategic vision for supporting chaplains in local schools. Delegates were challenged to pray for the local schools and to release their ministers and community workers for work in school chaplaincy. Each afternoon there was a regional meeting with school chaplains. In these meetings half the time was spent hearing about the findings of Steve’s research and half was spent discussing issues and answering questions. Conference packs were made available to each person, containing a wealth of resources. Each pack – paid for by the McLaren Trust Fund – contained a copy of the newly published Church of Scotland Guidance for Chaplains, a CD-Rom full of chaplaincy resources, a copy of either ‘Words’ or ‘Seasons’ (Steve’s booklets of TfR material for schools), a copy of ‘Bubblegum ‘n’ Fluff’ or ‘Easter Code’ (booklets on church and school seasonal partnership projects), a guide book and a box of spiritual exercises. These packs proved very popular and useful.
On 5th Nov. we held the Perth & Kinross Education training day at the A K Bell Theatre in Perth. We adapted the model initially used at an earlier conference in the Borders. This seemed to work well: instead of just Steve speaking along with one longer input from a Teacher, we experimented with four fifteen-minute mini-talks from a Secondary School Head, a Primary School teacher, and Secondary school chaplain and a Primary school Church worker. This was a very successful format and helped give a balanced presentation of how Time for Reflection is perceived/presented by schools/chaplains. Some adjustments could be made to timing as we had a two-and-a-quarter-hour morning session. A fifteen minute coffee break to split this would be better. The afternoon discussions were lively and it was helpful to have a brief presentation on CVE by Richard. His opening slides are now incorporated into the presentation that Steve gives. A particular highlight of the conference was the development of ‘Pupil Chaplaincy’ at Perth Academy, led by their Chaplaincy team under Rev. Allan Wilson. Twenty-five senior pupils have volunteered to serve as Pupil Chaplains. It will be exciting and interesting to see how this is developed.
Another event was held 13th Nov. This was a seminar for school chaplains in Lanarkshire. Invitations went to ministers in the local Presbyteries and to local clergy and onto various facebook groups. Nineteen booked and a few of these took Conference packs for absent colleagues. Feedback has again been very good. One attended from Stewarton, indicating a need for such events across the country. Two particularly useful interesting stories were shared and we hope to capture these for future articles: Gillian Burns from Stewarton shared innovative ideas for Secondary school chaplaincy and Bryan Kerr has developed expertise in Bereavement care and resources for Primary schools.
