Woodchester Endowed C. of E. (Aided) Primary School
School and Church: Flourishing Together
Woodchester Endowed C. of E. (Aided) Primary School aims to serve our community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice.
The school is located in North Woodchester - just across the green from the church – allowing us to support each other with joint activities and fruitful interaction throughout the year. Many of the school governors, including the chair, are drawn from the church congregation or ministry team, including the Rector, and all work hard to support the Head Teacher and her staff in many ways. Other members of the congregation visit the school regularly as ‘Open the Book’ performers or contributors to RE lessons when requested. It’s also a real highlight when teams of church and school volunteers get a chance to work alongside each other, for example serving refreshments to support school fund-raising events.
The children celebrate Christian festivals and mark school events with lively services in the church and many cross the road two and three times each term to attend noisy ‘Messy Church’ sessions. Every Christmas, the children also participate enthusiastically in the church lunch club for senior village residents. The whole school makes Christmas cards, enough for every guest, and the older children join us in church to sing and play songs from their concert, hand out small presents and lead us in carol singing. From young to old, everyone is smiling from ear to ear throughout – it is a wonderful, annual community celebration.
The school notice board in church is regularly updated so we can keep everyone in the congregation and church visitors informed. The notice board is mainly used to highlight school news and celebrate the active Christian vision at work in school.
The school has an impressive web site containing lots of information about the school vision, school life, teaching, curriculum and many other aspects of the school - we encourage you to take a look here: woodchesterprimary.co.uk.
‘Open the Book’ Team
Our Open the Book team engages children at Woodchester school with Bible stories using short, enjoyable dramas based on ‘The Story Telling Bible’ - Bob Hartman’s collection of 90 bible stories from Genesis to Revelation especially written for children. (Publ: British & Foreign Bible Society 2023).
With the help of costumes and great props our team of 4-5 church members presents the dramas during school assembly on Monday mornings and encourage the children to get involved with the acting and speaking parts. Sometimes every child in the school assembly can join in as ‘raucous crowds of people’ – a role they embrace noisily and enthusiastically!!
The dramas are always preceded with an introduction and end with a simple message and short prayer. Sometimes there is an opportunity to ask the children a few questions at the end, which really helps reinforce the meaning of the story.
Putting on these dramas is challenging but great fun for the team and really rewarding when you see the children engaging and enjoying it too; often leaving assembly singing with smiles on their faces.
If you would like to help us please contact Carla Spencer on 07594 685137. No drama qualifications or Equity cards are required and we guarantee you will enjoy it!