Christian Resources, RE Days & Training

REDays_920x768Peter brings a wide range of experience of working with children and young people and a very special creativity to his work. He is a great asset in resourcing schools, churches and individuals as they share aspects of faith and life’s journey with one another. RE days offer schools an opportunity to explore a theme in a deeper way and allow the children to share and explore.

In-service Training

Peter’s creative and practical approach is both distinctive and fresh, delivering the Christian message in a challenging, entertaining and memorable way fully in accord with the RE syllabus.

CSP’s bread and butter is the delivery of collective worship throughout the Christian year, with special emphasis on Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. Leavers’ services, Harvest Festivals & the celebration of Saints’ Days also feature strongly.

To supplement this work, CSP conducts half or full day spirituality/RE experience and training sessions based on the following themes:

  • Happenings reflections (25 themes to select from)
  • Christmas Journeys, reflecting on the Christmas story
  • Footsteps of Jesus, reflecting on the Easter story
  • Images of God
  • Holy Week reflections
  • Resources for school specific RE themes.

As a example of work undertaken, Peter recently conducted RE days at Carleton Endowed C of E Primary School, Threshfield Primary School and Parish C of E School Skipton as well as leading an extended collective worship morning at Grassington Primary School.

Costs for training sessions from September 2015

  • Collective Worship: no charge but donation appreciated to cover travel costs
  • Half day:  £150 + travel @ 45p a mile
  • Full days: £225 + travel @ 45p a mile
RE Focus Days

Recognising that many schools appreciate help to communicate the message of Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide and the other Christian festivals, CSP plan and deliver RE Focus Days tailored to the needs of the local community. To provide a flavour of the service provided we can do no better than reprint comments received following an event held at Bentham Community Primary School in 2017:

“Thursday 23rd March was another fantastic day at Bentham Community Primary School. We held an RE (Religious Education) focus day where we looked in detail at the Christian story of Easter.

This story was delivered in many guises and by many enthusiastic people from our local and not-so-local area. It was a very different day for the children but I’m sure a day that will stick in their minds for a while.

The school children were split into KS1 and KS2 and then divided up into three groups across those year groups. The children then spent the day on a carousel of different activities that gave a slightly different perspective on the story and journey of Jesus at Easter.

Peter Thomas from ‘Craven Schools Partnership’ came along and gave his wealth of experience and knowledge. He ran an interactive session for KS2 all about the footsteps of Jesus and used different colourful pictures of Jesus to help the children reflect and then discuss certain aspects of the Easter story. Peter also led us in a collective worship at the end of the day where the children shared all the different activities and their experiences of the day with the whole school.”

Cornerstone Bookshop

Peter Thomas has had a long-standing association with the Cornerstone Christian bookshop in Skipton both as a Trustee and as a local minister undertaking and supporting Christian work among children and young people.

Cornerstone offer a wide range of services including the loan of books, story bags and boxes to engage young people and provide new ideas for hard pressed teaching staff. With Peter’s active help and assistance the Grassington Satellite Centre has now opened, thus improving the accessibility of Cornerstone’s materials and extending it’s reach into Upper Wharfedale.

In order to demonstrate and promote the resource materials now available, Peter and his team are available for:

  • Seasonal school open days/evenings at which Peter and his team of volunteers bring resources to display, explain and make available to borrow
  • Training evenings/days where resources are demonstrated by experienced trainers and practitioners
  • Delivery of sample boxes (on loan) containing Children’s Bibles, Prayer Books, and RE/Curriculum and Collective Worship support materials for teaching staff to browse through and evaluate.

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