St Mary Redcliffe Church - A Year at Redcliffe

Over the past year, life at Sunday School has been eventful and fun. Since September, we
have welcomed more families to our Sunday School community, bringing our total to 48
(with 89 children on our register). Ideally, we would benefit from a purpose-built church
hall to accommodate such numbers! However, I firmly believe that it is not so much “what we
have, but what we do with it” that is important. To this effect, we constantly reflect on our practice
and facilities to provide the best service for our children and families. We have reinstated our
fourth group, Sparks, to ensure that group sizes are manageable and have adapted our “layout” in
the Undercroft to suit the needs of our children, We strive to create a safe, positive and “enabling”
learning environment in which each member of our Sunday School family can grow in love and
faith.
Our statistics show that a lot of our children are aged 4 and under. As such, parents in this age
range are required to remain in sessions with their children which accounts for a significant
number of adults being present in Sunday School. Parents of
older children are encouraged to stay in church and many take
this opportunity to enjoy quiet worship. Others opt to stay with
their children. Ultimately, we are providing a service for the
people and it is my aim to ensure their needs and desires are met
and respected. What cannot be questioned is the commitment
and dedication of all the Sunday School families to our activities
and events, and to our church.
During a service, we are separated physically from the rest of the
congregation. However, we are all part of the same church
community and this physical separation does not impede our
endeavours to integrate with the rest of the church family. Since
joining Redcliffe, many of our families have taken big steps on their faith journeys – either through
baptism, confirmation or admittance to communion. More recently, Sunday School families have
taken on new roles within the church as servers and readers.
To date, Treefest has been the most popular Sunday School event. However, our recent “Prayer
Day” based on the themes from The Magic Faraway Tree has just overtaken this event. With a
record number of children in attendance (42), we explored different ways of communicating with
God through a variety of prayer activities. The Backpack Appeal 2016 and our fundraising events
for the Lent Project have also been met with huge enthusiasm. Along with the congregation, we
donated a record total of 88 backpacks to Mary’s Meals and our fundraising events have been
equally well-supported.
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