Lisa Horton - Children & Families Worker
It’s been a very strange year since I was appointed for the role of Children and Family worker in January but it has given me the opportunity to connect with children and their families in new and creative ways and learn new technology skills! The first thing I did was set up our Benefice Facebook group so that parents could stay in touch with each other and support each other through the lock down. I have posted activities, songs, videos and prayers regularly and we now have 25 members, which is great.
I have had great fun producing resources to go online on St Nicholas’s YouTube channel including:
- Nature Bingo
- Around the World with Moses?
- Bible stories and craft activities, like Noah and the Whale
- Weekly Summer holiday Club video sessions
- School collective Worship videos during term time, such as this one on Friendship
I also produce a weekly Children’s Newsletter, which is sent out to all the schools and Benefice families.
I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with Rachael Harrison from the Harton Benefice and we ran our Summer Holiday club jointly, doing weekly zoom sessions. There were 10 children from our benefice and 20 children from Harton Benefice who took part. Craft packs were delivered each week to the children and it was lovely to hear the positive feedback from the families and nice to see them face to face (even if it was from a 2 metre distance).
The sewing machine has also been out and I’ve made Family Prayer bags for use in church, when we can finally return and some more story bags for the toddlers groups. More recently I set up a number trail around the four churches in the Benefice and on Saturday 3rd October we had our Scarecrow Trail around both St Nicholas’s and Holy Trinity. Despite the rain, it didn’t keep families away and it was lovely to see all the children, complete with wellies and raincoats hunting for all the scarecrows.
Hopefully in the not too distant future we will all be able to meet up again in our normal groups but until then I hope you all stay safe and well.
Lisa Horton