School Chaplaincy Project Training in Shetland
Having been on the Western Isles the week before, Rev Steve Younger reports on Schools Chaplaincy project training on Shetland this week during calving and lambing time…
A ‘Time for Reflection’ Conference led by Steve Younger of CVE Scotland was held in Shetland on 30th April. This was hosted at the Anderson High School Hall of Residence in Lerwick. The Director of Children’s Services, Helen Budge, attended (despite being on holiday that week and in the midst of lambing and calving on her farm!) and opened the conference. She spoke for fifteen minutes, warmly commending the role of TfR in building resilience, in health and wellbeing and in the acquisition of values and life-skills.
She had spent part of her morning from 2am to 4am assisting in the calving of a cow in difficulty and spoke of the emotional excitement of seeing the miracle of new life. She spoke of this as a metaphor of the educational task – giving young lives the best possible start and doing everything that can be done to ensure they grow and develop and acquire resilience and reach their fullest potential. The Deputy Director was also present and remained remained for the morning session. There were approximately 30 attendees in total, including the Religious Rep for Shetland (Tom McIntyre), all the school chaplains from Shetland’s 30 schools and six staff representing the school clusters. We held three sessions: the first (one-and-a-quarter hours) looked at ‘Time for Reflection’ and the research into Pupil responses to TfR. A second session (one-and-a-quarter hours) took the form of small group discussions and feedback on key questions – these were adapted from those used at West Lothian and centred around partnership, collaborative working of chaplains and schools and the practice of TfR. Following lunch our final session explored practice and resources, with input from Marjorie Paton (Vice Convenor CofS Education Committee), Neil Lynch (Chaplain, Anderson High School), Agnes Mullen (CofS), and myself.
[Photo: (l to r) Marjorie Paton (Vice Convenor, Church of Scotland Education Committee), Tom McIntyre (Religious Rep., Shetland Council), Helen Budge (Director of Children’s Services, Shetland Council), Agnes Mullen (Church of Scotland).]
