Hub Assignment 3

USP and the 4 Ps - Remember: 'Put yourself in the client's shoes'

Product - Describe your service and how it meets a specific need or demand in your schools

My aim for the schools work is to work with those in the local community and to teach RE lessons, collective worship (assemblies) and potentially a parenting programme for those who need support or are disadvantaged. There is a primary school nearby with many disadvantaged pupils who have asked for this support, as well as another local primary school that visits the church and would be keen to have us interact with them more.

Price - What is the perceived value to the school - you must understand what they are looking for in what you are offering

The value to the school/schools is that most schools have a very tight budget, particularly for subjects like RE, so therfore they would like to have expertise in the subject but for little or no cost, which is what we offer. We can take the burden off teachers from time to time by offering them RE Sessions as well as whole school assemblies, lunch time clubs and parenting workshops. This will hopefully lead to improvement in the children's attainment and progress overall. The local schools are quite diverse so having an authentic Christian speaker will be something new we can offer.

Promotion

I will email contacts that we have already made with teachers on previous visits to our chucrh at one school and their RE co-ordinator whose details I have been given. As an ex primary school teacher who goes into schools teaching about relationships with a local charity, I also hope to speak to staff in those schools to promote this further. I am happy to also use social media and our church website to show evidence of our school sessions and to promote what we do to reach the local community. The vicar has held assemblies in a couple of the local schools so I am sure they would be happy for me to also come in and speak to the children in my role as the children and youth leader. I have so far liased with aonther FIS volunteer who has spoken to the headteacher about this project taking place and my initial plan is to go into the school with her and deliver an an assembly and lessons.

Place

I plan to work in the primary school classrooms and to support the teachers in topics that are in their current RE curriculum. It would also be good to arrange further school visits to one of our two churches as this has been successful in the past and we have a great space at St. Mary's to hold workshops and lesson activities.

What is the motivation of the school?

The motivation of the school would be that there are often RE teachers who have a very surface level knowledge of the faith and need some support in teaching more challenging aspects of Christianity. This would also free them up to have some planning time when we teach and we may be able to give them new creative teaching ideas. The lunchtime clubs and parenting sessions would help us to establish mentoring and pastoral links that are beneficial to the local community.

What is your unique selling point? How are you different from what else is available? (Price, Expertise, Partnership)

Having worked in mullti-faith schools for many years (including a preominantly Muslim school for 14 years) I feel I have a good understanding of the sesntivites and difficulties different faiths may face in the community. Although I am a Christian, I believe I am able to respect other people's faiths and be empathetic to other cultures. As I will be going in as a volunteer rather than a class teacher I feel there is more scope to have a more pastoral care role. Aside from my church job I teach young people about relationships, which is something that links in well with RE in many ways. I would also be free of cost so this would be a big bonus to the school.

What is the geograpic or instituotional area you cover?

At the moment it would be the TW7 area of Isleworth covered. There are several schools in this area that we could potentially reach.

Who do you work with - primary service (like children/young people) and secondary (like church volunteers, teachers?) Are you on the front of a trend? Is your service visionary - how?

The RE teaching aspect of this project may not be particularly new or visionary but I would like to use my experience in setting up a prayer space and lunchtime chapel club potentially, which would be new for schools. Also, it would be really good if eventually the charity I work for could be involved in partnering up so that we could work on improving the relationships in familes, and with young people making good friendship and relationship choices which could be a longer term vision for the project. I have approached a couple of people who could possibly volunteer sometimes to make good discussions possible.

Partnership Networks for Sustainable Support

My local partners are the other churches nearby, such as All Souls, All Saints and St. Mary's Osterley. The schools who we might partner with are Ivybridge, Chatsworth Primary and Isleworth Town. If there is a way that we can somehow integrate RE with RSE then there is a possibilty of Crossway also being involved in this.

Task: In your Pairs, Research your local Partnership Networks for Sustainable Support.

Use Google Maps to locate and ‘pin’ your target schools, churches and partnership (eg, charities).

Use the Handout, write up a Strategic Plan and discuss the opportunities and challenges of your potential Partnership Networks.