An initiative to boost connections between church, school, and home is starting to take off in our diocese with the creation of the first Growing Faith Learning Hub in West Wivelshire and the idea in action in Trigg Minor & Bodmin.

The aim of the Learning Hubs initiative is to put children, young people and families at the heart of all ministry and mission by creating resources that supplement the RE curriculum and Understanding Christianity resource that is in 7,000 schools nationally.

In West Wivelshire, Revd Ben Morgan-Lundie, Rector of Looe Valley Benefice, is working with Dave Hannah, head teacher at Duloe School to set the Learning Hub up. The pair had applied to become a hub and were one of 12 out of 32 applications accepted.

Ben said: “We are delighted that we have been selected as one of the new hubs and recognise that we, the Diocese of Truro and our diocesan church schools, will be helping to create something of national importance. We are committed to growing and strengthening the links and understanding between school, home, and church. This project gives us more focus to build on the existing relationships.”

Dave said: “What is particularly exciting about this venture, is that it is child driven. We are listening to what the children want and basing our approach on their thoughts and comments.”

Already having an impact

And this way of thinking and working is already having an impact as St Mary’s Church Bradoc (Trigg Minor & Bodmin Deanery) discovered.

Rob Pearce, Churchwarden at Bradoc, explains: “When we started our creation care journey ten years ago, one of our questions was how we as a church related to our school children and how they relate to Christianity, adults and creation. Part of our learning process was the thought that grownups and children may have very different values and that at church there is little discussion as to what Christianity is. Yet talk to a child and they have a deep understanding about creation and Christian distinctiveness given them by school and we needed a bridge between them.”

Five years ago, the parish adopted the ‘Understanding Christianity’ approach of the national curriculum for schools, used in every maintained and church school as a means for all of us of all ages, to better understand Christianity and get a common baseline.

Rob said: “As a PCC we gave the ‘Understanding Christianity Big Frieze’ (a 4.8m long eight panel graphic dealing with books of the Old and New Testament) to our school to display in their hall and put a 2.4m one up on the north nave of the church. Our children from our local schools now know that our belief in Christianity and Creation is the same at school or at church. They view the church and school as one Safe place with daily collective worship and pioneer ministry.”

This approach proved to be working when on Christmas eve morning a visiting family with two primary aged children came to the church. The two young children went up to the frieze and told their parents all about creation. Rob added: “It was our Christmas miracle. Two unknown children from a school in west Cornwall were able to walk in and feel totally at home in our church and with Christianity and tell their parents about their Christian creation beliefs they had discerned at their school.”

Lee Moscato, Director of Education, said: “This is a great example of how we can make meaningful connections between school and church. The Learning Hub project that we have here in our diocese will show how a beautiful resource that children are familiar with can be a direct link between their worshipping and learning lives in both church and school. I am excited to see how this grows and can be used to show schools and churches across the country the impact that bringing these two spaces closer together can have.”

If anyone would like to know more about the Big Frieze used in Understanding Christianity, email the Education team who can put you in contact with someone who can help. 

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