Each box has its own purpose.
Dream: to think strategically and with vision about our work in schools.
Develop: to consider different skills we need to grow for our work in schools.
Do: a resource idea related to this theme that you can take and use in your work.
Each month we will link you to downloads and continued reading at schoolswork.co.uk
This time of year is often about making preparations to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. I wonder whether the reason so many people choose to celebrate during the Christmas season is that we aren’t given enough opportunities during the rest of the year to embrace the idea of celebration. We are bombarded with horrifying stories in the news most days and are constantly shown images of how tough life is for many people. Although this is important and we should be aware and more prayerful about these stories and real with ourselves and those who are struggling around us, it is equally important to make space for good news stories and to celebrate those. This month at schoolsworkUK we’re thinking about celebration and have suggested some different ways you can embrace this theme in your own thinking, development and work in schools:
DREAM
The Gospels illustrate celebration. In Luke 15 we read three stories of the celebration that take place when something lost is found. Of course, the stories are pointing us to the rejoicing in Heaven when someone repents, but equally valid is how that is reflected on Earth, inside these stories. In each example, we see friends and neighbours gathered together to celebrate good news.
I wonder what celebration looks like in your ministry in schools. Do you share good news stories with those you are working with? Do you encourage good news stories to be told about students in the staff room? Do your supporters celebrate you and the work you give your all to do?
We’d love you to dream about how you can you build the art of ‘celebration’ into your weekly schedules, both individually or with others you work alongside, whether in church or school. Perhaps it could even be a value that you build into your vision or mission statement.
DEVELOP
Here are six ideas to help you celebrate good news more often. If some of these are already present in your ministry, fantastic! We’d love to hear your ideas and to add them to our list on the schoolsworkUK website. Just visit the homepage and click ‘celebration’ on the main carousel.
Frequent:
• Each day, jot down one thing you are thankful for and want to celebrate. Perhaps have a ‘celebration board’ near your desk or work space, or you may prefer to do this on social media and share it with others.
• In meetings, either with a team or line manager, add an item to your agenda that is simply titled ‘celebration’. In that slot, share things you want to celebrate about each other, the work, the schools or the young people you are working with.
• Think of something you do often throughout the day, such as making a cup of tea or washing your hands. Choose to use those moments to thank God for the small things we often overlook and celebrate moments you have had throughout the day.
Every so often:
• Hold an annual ‘celebration’ of your work in schools. Gather together churches that support you, staff and students from the schools and others who support you in prayer or financially. Thank God for the work and the impact it is having.
• Each term, arrange celebration days or halfdays with those you work with or who do similar work in your area. Share food and stories, and pray for each other.
• Celebrate the teachers in the schools you work in. At the end of term, bring a box of doughnuts into the staff room or cook them a meal on an inset day, while sharing stories of what you appreciate and value about them.
DO
Celebrate good news this Christmas with students in your schools. A typical way to do this might be to throw a party in a lunch break, which is a great way to bring students together, perhaps as an outreach tool for a Christian Union. You might want to combine this with an end-of-term awards celebration. You could award chocolate coin medals for particular things you have appreciated about the students during the term.
Another way to celebrate might be an assembly on ‘celebration’. Feature the good news story of Jesus coming to bring hope that we celebrate at Christmas, but do that alongside sharing other good news stories. For example, collect stories from your school from the autumn term (be it sports, positive change in the school, or ‘success’ stories that we talked about last month), gather good news stories from around the world (visit schoolsworkUK for links to some brilliant good news websites) or share good news stories from your town. For a celebration assembly plan, visit schoolsworkUK.
Our third suggestion of how to promote celebration in schools this Christmas is to get students to write themselves a letter. Maybe introduce this in an assembly, prayer space or club, where students write a letter to themselves, celebrating their achievements over the term that has just finished. Encourage them to identify some small things as well as bigger achievements. If they struggle to think of things, have examples ready for them. Then put these in envelopes, clearly labelled with their names and form groups, and they can then be handed back to them in January so they can read back what they have written.
Please visit schoolswork.co.uk for materials and ideas referenced on this page.
