With the potential for school closures hitting the headlines, let us celebrate what has been managed to teach children about Jesus in the schools these terms.

We are a few weeks away from the Easter Holidays now, and so it’s been nearly two whole terms of the Trekkers clubs in both Oulton First School, and Christ Church First School.

And what an exciting opportunity it has been!

We have been exploring the parables that Jesus teaches us in the Bible, unpacking what they might mean to our lives. And we’ve covered quite a few! From the Lost Sheep, to the parable of the two servants, to the parable of the Sower, we’ve learnt lots about who Jesus is and how he can teach us how to live, as well as who Jesus says that we are.

We’ve learnt about forgiveness and kindness, and remembering to pray to God and being sorry when we’ve done things wrong. I have been blown away by the wisdom and maturity that the children have shown when discussing and responding to stories that deal with these themes.

We’ve also played many games! Wink murder has become a particular favourite with the children at Oulton, and both groups have loved the treasure hunts to find items or words relevant to the story we are looking at that week.

And who could forget the crafts. While there have been many messes (the sponges and water session to represent Jesus washing us with his forgiveness led to a certain amount of spilled water and soap!) the children have often managed to take away colouring in and crafts relevant to the story. They particularly enjoyed the cotton wool sheep last week!

We’ve had lots of fun in these clubs over the past few weeks. But we’ve also always looked at a story about Jesus in the bible, and examined what we think the passage is saying that could help us in our lives. As is said in the book of Matthew: ‘Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”’ (Matthew 19:14) Hopefully despite the volatile situation, there will still be the opportunity in the future to let the children hear and learn about Jesus because the kingdom of heaven belongs to them too.

Peter Cuthbert