New Teacher Training and a Visit to Bristol Cathedral

Last Thursday, we delivered our new teacher training session for the first time. It is packed full of creative ideas for teachers to help children to understand key Christian concepts, with knowledge to enable greater discussion. The teachers who attended found it invaluable and we hope to deliver this again in the future.

We also attended a conference at Bristol Cathedral where we were able to share the work of Encounter Christianity. After a brilliant final week in schools, including two new ones, we are now at the end of term. Wishing you all a lovely summer break!

The Miraculous Catch of Fish

Last week we delivered our new SEND session: ‘The Miraculous Catch of Fish.’ We had a wonderful couple of mornings with different groups and ages of children engaging with different sensory activities based on fish and the sea. It is always such a joy to see the children interacting with the different resources; the water, kinetic sand and wind up turtle were a great hit! A volunteer commented: “That was so successful.”, while a teacher said: “Lovely pace allowing children to explore individually.” We are looking forward to returning next term.

Mullers 'Every Child, Every Year' Event

Our friends at Mullers are running a special event for church leaders on 10th July. Here are the details:

You are invited to a gathering of Christian leaders to consider how, together, we can see every child in Bristol hear the Gospel, every year by 2035.

This includes sharing plans on running a pilot schools mission week in October of this year.

Join us on the 10th July to hear more info on the opportunities that exist, the pilot mission week, and share your thoughts on how we move forward with this vision.

Find out more and sign up on the Mullers website:

https://www.mullers.org

Thanksgiving Service 2025

We had a fabulous evening last night giving thanks for all that God has done through Encounter Christianity this past year. So many stories to share and such an encouraging time. It was lovely to chat with people and see how many schools we continue to visit, as well as many new ones. Chloe did another great quiz and we realised that the number of children we have seen this year has increased by 46%- amazing!! The team are all very thankful that this is our job; it is an enormous privilege to be able to visit and teach in so many different schools across the city and beyond, and meet so many wonderful students and teachers.

Prayer for Schools

At the end of last term, with Bristol Schools Connection and Together4Bristol, we hosted what we hope will be the first of many Prayer for Schools events. People from across Bristol and South Gloucestershire came together to pray for students, teachers and other school staff, senior leaders, governors, and parents. It was a wonderful evening, and those who work in or support work in schools, were able to connect and be encouraged after what has been a long and often challenging year.

Bristol Women's Conference

We had a wonderful time at the Bristol Women's Conference on Saturday! There were lots of fabulous talks and seminars, including Sharon’s one on supporting children with additional needs, which was really well attended and received. We were able to meet with delegates at our stall during the breaktimes, encouraging and being encouraged!

Prayer for School's Event

Revision Help!

We had a fabulous day hosting Year 10 from a local school at one of our partner churches. It was great to engage with the students and share what some of the key Christian beliefs they have been learning about mean in real life for Christians. The students did a tour of the church, learning more about Christian beliefs and practices in action; a session on Mission and Evangelism; and a session on Sin and Salvation. We loved it!

Prayer Workshop

We really enjoyed hosting 2 days of prayer workshops for all the classes at a local primary school!

In Key Stage 2 pupils had the opportunity to think about the words of the Lord’s Prayer through looking at different pieces of art, making pipe cleaner people, writing postcards, making paper chains and completing a piece of scratch art.

In EYFS and Key Stage 1, pupils made plasticine people, drew pictures about the world and watched bubbles filling the classroom!

It was a busy two days, but the children and teachers thoroughly enjoyed all the interactive stations as they moved around the room to explore more about Jesus’ famous prayer.

SACRE Conference 2025

It was wonderful to join with 100 primary and secondary school teachers from across Bristol and South Glos. at the Annual RE Conference.

We enjoyed meeting a number of staff at our stand, and running a workshop for secondary teachers on teaching Christianity from a Christian perspective.

We are uniquely placed to help schools include a ‘lived reality’ approach to the Christian religion - something OFSTED commented was lacking from many RE lessons.