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We wanted to use this format to report on our findings and every day life of our Growing Faith Learning Hub. Feel free to explore and enjoy the fun and the mundane in our little pocket of Coventry!

Our Vision and Values were set jointly with the school over a course of a few months. These help us to stay focussed on which projects we prioritise.

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In Nov 25 we started a toddler group at St Stephen's under the Growing Faith banner. We placed a big effort into finding team, creating routine and structure.

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A parent from school came to join us at tots group after a few months of inviting every week on Whatsapp.

"I was a bit nervous of coming. When I came to parent cafe at school T(2) was into everything and I felt a bit guilty and I haven't gone again. This is just lovely. I've felt so welcome and I wish I'd come sooner."

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Our annual Caroloke brought many school families into church. 12 School choir children, their families plus our usual congregation filled the church to capacity!

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Choir sang their hearts out with this Nativity! classic

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Gathered around campfire to sing Silent Night

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A snippet of Mary Did You Know sung with candles around the firepit

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The children did so well juggling singing, signing, candles and the wind! A very moving and beautiful performance.

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Our aim is to connect with those who are most isolated, who may not be able to find community elsewhere. We look to create a safe, nurturing space for parents while modelling positive parenting practices. We have not advertised this group but invite families that we meet at Leigh Academy, those parenting SEND children, through Food Bank or elsewhere.

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A side product of us creating this group has been giving single mums who have started attending church on a Sunday a purpose and a job. It's becoming a good way to gently disciple new families at church in the areas of mission, service and community.

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You can't invite families into church unless you have something to invite them to!

Tots lunch has become a meaningful way to support parents from school and a reason to invite them into our church building.

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Hobby Hub is fresh expression of church. It happens once a month. The model is very invitational and gets families through the doors.

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Our main challenge is that church families have so many kids, we don't have enough adults to support them!

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We set up the room as a low prep "all age playgroup", with crafts, toddler toys, Lego, 'baking', outdoor activities, board games and puzzles. We serve free toast and fruit, drinks and biscuits. At the end we gather together to watch a bible story video while eating popcorn.

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Families sit on the floor and on chairs to watch the Bible story while eating popcorn

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We have started meeting to pray specifically for our children and families for an hour every other Friday. We have already seen several answers to prayer including reconciliation and families returning to church.

One specific thing we started to pray for before Easter was for 15 new adults to turn up at St Stephens (in our mind so that they could support with all the kids!) Since Easter, 6 new adults have turned up, two bringing two more children with SEN and the other 4 are big burly men new to faith! We love how God answers prayer but not in the ways we expect!

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Because of all the people turning up who are new to faith, we have added a Bible Study table to the Hobby Hub set up. This month we had about 10 adults studying John the Baptist while the children played.

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This term we have been focussing on relationship building, having fun, letting the children dance and move.

After focusing heavily on performances over Christmas, we've taken time to return lunchtime choir back into a 'play' activity for those who don't want to be on the playground.

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There are many SEN and neurodiverse children for whom choir is part of their weekly routine and I love to observe the regulating effect music has on them. One sweet low-verbal girl from year 1 loves to twirl and dance around the classroom and some of the more active year 4 boys like to show off their breakdancing moves!

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Some of our little ones like to show off their songs to and about God. Little R has a new song for God every time I see him!

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We now have two choirs- one for years 1-4 and another for years 5 and 6. The songs we sing differ. The younger ones want actions, makaton, silly and lively songs.

The older children love taking it turns to do solos or try songs with different parts. I've loved watching one particular year 6 girl join choir and blossom in her confidence over the past couple of months.

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We have been asked to assemble a "mini-choir" to sing at the New Vicar of The Bridge's induction service in June.

This will be a fun new challenge for us. We'll keep you posted!

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Parent Cafe continues to be a space to build community with parents in school.

Discussion topics range anywhere from struggles with getting children ready in the morning due to sensory issues to deep backstories and emotional support.

Some mums are learning to bake and have been bringing their creations to share with us! We've taste tested some interesting recipes!

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pink brownie with beetroot sticking out of the top

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A local MP visits Parent Cafe to listen to parents views

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The rain poured but we still had an amazing turn out for our annual Easter Trail at Leigh School. What a wonderful way to celebrate the true meaning of Easter with our community.

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Volunteers from across 4 churches came to serve out school families and show the love of Christ

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Volunteers from across 4 churches came to serve our school families and show the love of Christ

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Breathe continues to be a safe space for parents/carers of SEND children. We take time to rest, chat and encourage one another.

The instrumental worship music, low lighting, blankets and candles create a little haven in the middle of Canley.

In recent months we have begun praying for each other.

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I've been reflecting this week on how fortunate I have been to have access to the support and training I've needed from Post Adoption Support while parenting my SEND child with trauma. Most of the parents we work with have not had this privilege.

The much quoted proverb "It takes a village to raise a child" rings true, but how much more support does a child with additional needs need?

This week we have had parents accessing Breathe and Parent Cafe who are dysregulated and overwhelmed. Many of the parents we work with face barriers financially and socially.

A therapeutic, holistic approach to supporting them is so key. Underpinning our work is the notion of holding the parent so they can hold their child. It is a joy to see parents leaving our sessions calmer and in a better head space than when they arrived.

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We will see lasting transformation for all children and families at Leigh CE Academy, no matter what the barrier, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

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To bring joy in the school, joy within families and joy for the community through the love and strength of God in us.

Cycles of poverty, poor mental health and loneliness broken in the name of Jesus enabling families to live life in all its fullness.

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😄 Joy

🫂 Belonging and inclusivity

♿ Accessible

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Whole family

🤍 Compassion

❤️‍🔥Courageousness

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We believe that the joy of the Lord is our strength and that God can strengthen all families to flourish.

As a church, we aim to support all parents to hold their children so that they can grow up knowing they are safe and loved.

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Our year sixes have been working hard on their SATS this week. On Monday at Choir some of our year 6 girls wanted to sing this song. Yes Girls!! 💪

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We have been meeting with children's and family workers from other churches to share our learning, encourage them in their journeys and celebrate what God is doing together.

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This month, I asked some of the smallest and underrepresented voices in the room what they thought about Hobby Hub Sundays. We are aware that some people actively avoid these Sundays.

This is what I heard:

"I like cake" (R, 6)

"We know what to expect." (Mum with SEN child who has been unable to step into church for a while)

"It's so calm - I know there are kids everywhere but I can feel peace when I'm here. I drive 25 mins to come every month. I like that the kids play with no screens. There's a sense of community you don't find in other places." (Non-christian Mum of 2)

"...

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Working on making our Sunday church services more accessible. The addition of a calm room for people who become dysregulated or overwhelmed as well as making our services - Simple, Structured and Shorter (45-50mins) Singing known songs, and simplifying our activities for children with the hope this will create a calmer space for engaging with faith and becoming disciples.

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Today our littlest ones at choir just couldn't seem to settle so we got out the pens and flip chart paper so they could doodle while we sang worship songs.

In the end about ten year 1s joined in with this activity, all drawing things they were thankful to God for: family, their homes, angels, Jesus, bluebells and friends.

Worship doesn't always have to look like everyone standing singing facing the front :)

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As they played in the garden afterwards, the choir were running around chanting "Jesus is the King that I follow" again and again. Yes they were extremely hyper but what a blessing!

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Our choir led the congregation in worship by singing Awesome God (Phil Wickham) and teaching the hundreds of adults The King by Worship for Everyone.

Bishop Sophie and other senior clergy members were enjoying dancing along!

It was a joyful celebration.

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Of our 20 children who came, many come from unchurched backgrounds.

Parents supervised their children at the event and all had positive things to say.

"I've never been to a church before, only a funeral. This was good."

"I went to Orthodox church in my country but not in England. I like this church. I might come again."

"It was so peaceful here. We'll definitely come again"

"Are you doing any more fixtures?"

"I might come on Sundays."

Staff who attended mentioned feeling peace in the building and one said, "When the children were singing I could feel it. I could feel something. We should sing more religious songs like this in school."

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The venue at St John's is in a more rural setting than the part of the city where the school is and has a wonderful prayer garden. The choir enjoyed exploring this at the after party and have expressed that they'd like to come back.

The garden is also where we run The Bridge (our Benefice) Youth work from so it was lovely to encourage the year 6s to visit our youth group sometime.

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The sun shone and year 3 danced and paraded our way around the school grounds, showing off our flowers, prayer trees and banners!

To honour the 1950s theme we were given, we did a ribbon dance led by our friend Carrie from St Oswald's to Give me Oil in my Lamp - what a classic!

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This year's theme was 'Memories of Canley'.

Again, we were asked by the school to work with year 3. Carrie, a local artist from St Oswald's helped me with this project.

We ran three focus groups to gather the children's ideas for our group's float. We asked, "What do you like about living in Canley/Tile Hill." And, "what makes a community?" The children stated that they liked playing in fields, paddling in the brook, going to the woods, watching the trains, going to the park, playing with friends and going to school.

After collecting the children's ideas about their memories and favourite things about where we live, we settled on a theme of Outdoor Play.

A few weeks before the parade, the event organisers told us that our 'Era' was the 1950s. We had to adapt our float ideas slightly but decided that the local children in the 1950s probably enjoyed outdoor play too.

We ran two classes where we discussed what childhood looked like in the 1950s and made props for the parade.

Disappointingly for the children and myself, this year's Canley parade was rained off and cancelled.

Despite the lack of the actual parade, the Big Lunch afterwards was a great event, St Stephen's gave away lots of free burgers and Bibles and we displayed the children's art work (it got a bit soggy!). We saw many of our school and local families at the Big Lunch instead.

However, all our hard work was not to waste as we still had our mini parade in school to look forward to.

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This year we ran two church workshops to make props and crafts for the parade.

We invited church, local and school families to join the fun and we had a good and enthusiastic attendance.

I felt these were really valuable as we reached new families and got to welcome them into the church building. We had a lot of fun creating our really big banners!

During the first workshop we paired up with the church's children's work and overlapped a half term film event and for the second workshop we ate fish and chips together while we created.

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The children sing Awesome God by Phil Wickham 

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Our lovely parent cafe has shifted recently from being an eclectic group of parents who didn't know each other to a community who bakes for each other, offers to take care of each others kids and share life's struggles and joys.

A few weeks ago one of the mum's asked if the school had a PTA and was told that the PTA has been run by a single teacher for the past 7 years as they couldn't find any parents willing to join. The group as a whole said they'd like to support the school in this way and so a new unofficial PTA has been born!

This morning we spent time chatting, talking about bereavement and grief, while folding tombola tickets for this afternoon's Summer Fayre.

I am taking a back seat now and merely facilitating the coffee mornings while letting the parents guide the sessions.

It's really exciting what can grow when you spend time investing in creating safe environments.

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A school mum with two SEN toddlers came to group today. She shared her story about her anxiety about taking the boys out. She managed to talk to our team about her personal faith and other things while another team member played with her boys.

Praise God for her courage to step out of the house and join our group.