Hello from the Spinnaker Orpington team!

We are enjoying the sunny weather and colourful Spring flowers on our travels around Orpington, visiting our schools – we hope you are too. They are filling us with joy and wonder at God’s creation.

We continue to lead collective worship at these schools regularly: Blenheim, Chelsfield, Cudham, Darrick Wood Juniors, Farnborough, Pratts Bottom, St Pauls Cray, Tubbenden and Warren Road, and occasionally at Crofton Juniors, Green Street Green and Midfield. Last term, we also visited St Mary Cray for a special assembly on Easter for the first time in many years.

We are continuing with our assembly series Beyond Belief: Values into Action, exploring Christian values with the children through examples from the Bible and their own lives. This term, we will explore Cooperation, Equality, Gentleness, Honesty, Self Care, Passion and the Fruits of the Spirit. These are all available on our website if you’re interested. Sometimes we are asked to lead assemblies on Christian festivals, so last term shared our Easter assemblies with some schools, explaining why we celebrate and what these special events mean to us.

We also helped welcome children from Chelsfield and Green St Green schools to Green Street Green Baptist Church with Pastor David Wood, to explore the church and learn about what happens there as well as leading an interactive imaginative journey through the events of Easter. The children really engaged with the activities and their teachers were grateful for the opportunity, saying the children loved the experience.

Last term, the team also had opportunities to be part of the wider faith community in the area. We were invited to help with Bishop Justus CE School’s Easter Celebration and Service, providing craft and leading the actions in the songs! Caroline and Katie also took part in training for The Faith and Belief Forum’s new project, Faith in Encounter, where people of faith visit classes to share their faith story and take part in workshops. This is being trialled at Warren Road school and we are excited to be involved.

Looking Forward, we are involved in some exciting events this term. At the beginning of June, we are taking part in Trinity Primary School’s Trinity Day, leading workshops and craft activities and joining in with a whole school praise party to finish the day. At the end of June, we are part of Bromley Schools Festival at Bromley Parish Church, leading workshops again but with lots of local schools.

Coming Soon: Praying Across Our Schools! As part of Spinnaker’s 40th anniversary celebrations, we would love you to join us in praying over the schools we visit in Orpington, outside the schools. We’re going to see how many we can fit in the day. We plan to do this in June or July. You could join us for all or the school nearest to you, or pray from home or work – we'll have a timetable. More details coming soon.

Follow Us! We post about our activities on Spinnaker Orpington’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/spinnakerorpington
Pray for us We value your prayers for the team and for the schools we visit.

Interested in joining us? We are always looking for volunteers to join our team visiting schools. If you’re interested, please contact [email protected]

Thank you for your continued interest and support!

Caroline Rous, Orpington Hub Leader