THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Chair: The Bishop of Ely
Secretary: The Revd Canon Tim Elbourne, Director of Education and Training
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/index

Most of the day to day work of the Board is carried out by its team of officers and volunteers and is reported below. To emphasise that the focus of the work is in the delivery of services and opportunities for people in the churches and schools of the diocese, we adopted in 2003 the strapline, ‘Supporting Parishes and Schools’. Direct consultancy, training opportunities, publications (such as the 2003 Diocesan Lent Course ‘Encounters with Jesus’) and facilities such as the Diocesan Resources Centre are offered in direct support of local ministry and mission. But the large scale events, such as Rave in the Nave and the Cathedral Schools Days, are also organised each year to complement the work that continues locally. It is at the local level that education and mission are given day to day expression.

Behind the scenes of much of the work is a network of people who reflect, plan and help to carry forward the various projects. We owe a great deal to the people who serve on the Board and its Councils. 2003 was the final year of the triennium and we record our thanks to those people who have been members of the Board over the last period. We also record our thanks to Bishops John Flack and John Inge and to Ruth Bond for completing stints in the chair of respectively the Ministry and Adult Learning, Youth and Children’s Councils. A fully attended meeting of the Board has involved well over thirty people and accordingly the Synod resolved to reduce the number of elected members in the 2004-7 Board from 18 to 14. It was encouraging that there was a contested election for the Board in November as this gave members of the Synod the opportunity to consider the range of experience and skills needed for the next for the work to continue to flourish in the next triennium. The Board continues to adapt to changing circumstances and the year has in particular seen significant development in the area of Ministry and Adult Learning with the creation of a new Director post (see ‘Ministry and Adult Learning below).

Tim Elbourne

Schools Work

Chair of Schools Executive:
The Archdeacon of Wisbech (- Sept) John Abbott (Nov -)
Officers:
The Revd Canon Tim Elbourne (Director)
Dr Shirley Hall (RE Adviser)
Mrs Cath Conlon (Buildings and Finance Officer)
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/schools

One of the factors of our work in this diocese, located in the area of most rapid population growth in the country, is regular exploration of new school projects. 2003 saw one such project come to fruition and a formal proposal for another. The Orchards Church of England Primary School opened in September. It has been created through the amalgamation of two existing schools, St Augustine’s Infants and Gordon Fendick Junior and with a capacity of up top 420 places will be one of the largest church primary schools in the diocese. Building works to create a new hall and ‘heart’ of the school and to physically join the two existing buildings will be completed by September 2004.

Throughout the year there have been discussions about secondary provision in the Downham Market area. A group from the local churches has met regularly and a proposal for a new VS secondary school – formally as an Anglican-Methodist promotion but with involvement of other local churches – was made in the autumn to the DfES through Norfolk LEA. The process of securing the £15 million of public funding needed and then building the school may yet take a considerable time and will be heavily influenced by the rate of demographic change. However, important preliminaries have been achieved through the building of a local ecumenical and community support and the detailed dialogue with the LEA.

The Property Management service to Voluntary Aided schools launched in 2002 has continued to develop through the year and has been very well received by the schools. For the payment of an annual subscription schools are able to access a range of maintenance and repair services quickly and efficiently. It was agreed by the Schools Executive in the Spring that the next step would be to ask the Finance Committee to agree to formally establish a trading company through which this and other school service activities can be developed cost efficiently. Meanwhile there was the usual round of major capital building projects in our VA schools with notable extensions and refurbishments at St Augustine’s Woodston (£630,000); Bury (£492,000); Barton (£311,000); Runcton Holme (£239,000); St Luke’s, Cambridge (£212,000); St Paul’s, Cambridge (£141,000); St John’s, Orton Goldhay (£126,000); St Bede’s , Cambridge (£93,000).

The annual headteachers’ conference in the summer was again very well supported. We took as our theme ‘Stressing the Positive’ and looked at well-being and the management of stress together with resources for developing people and continuing professional development. We offered once again our annual headteacher induction day and developed our direct communication with schools with the introduction of an e-mail bulletin. The Director has continued to chair the Cambridgeshire Schools Organisation Committee and our officers work in close association with various committees and ad-hoc working parties of our three LEAs, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Peterborough. We have supported all those schools which have recruited new headteachers and deputy headteachers during the year. New headteachers were appointed to: Barton, Bury, St Bede’s, Northwold, Oakington, Walpole St. Peter, Yaxley, Eynesbury, Holme, St John’s Huntingdon and Orchards.

Tim Elbourne

Schools RE Adviser

Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council is linked with the Diocese of Vellore, Church of South India. In 2003 a significant visit was made to Cambridgeshire by three representatives of the Diocese of Vellore; this included an extended programme of church school visits facilitated by the Schools RE Adviser.

The Cambridgeshire / Vellore link was further enhanced by the production of Harvest and Christmas materials for schools on life in South India, produced by the Adviser and Revd Fiona Brampton. Our church schools responded magnificently to these materials by raising over £3,000 to support the much-needed repair of four schools in India.

Special mention should be made here of St Martin at Shouldham School, which raised £800! A collection of materials on the Vellore link may be found on the Schools website at www.ely.anglican.org/education/schools

A regular feature of church school life in Ely Diocese is the October Cathedral Days. Over the years attendance at these has increased steadily, reaching a high point in October 2003, when 63 of the 79 church schools eligible to attend sent classes to the event. The children celebrated harvest together in music, song and dance and learnt about the Feast of Tabernacles, before joining in a service of worship. These events are written and run by the Schools RE Adviser with the support of the Cathedral’s own Education Team.

The Cathedral team then run an identical two days for community schools with the Adviser’s support. It is pleasing that numbers on these days are also rising. The Cathedral Days for October 2004, on the theme of the World Church, are already being planned.

Over 2003 the Adviser has been working on ways of transferring the Godly Play story-telling technique to the school classroom. It is an initiative that is being met with enthusiasm by our schools, and the Adviser has already had the opportunity of demonstrating Godly Play in more than a dozen schools. It is anticipated that this is an initiative that will continue well into 2004.

Other features of the Schools RE Advisers work in 2003 included:

• Supporting SACREs in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, including being on the Agreed Syllabus writing and planning group for Norfolk, and the working party for Foundation Stage RE for Cambridgeshire. The Cambridgeshire RE Agreed Syllabus was re-launched in February 2003.
• Involvement in headteacher and deputy headteacher interviews at church schools
• Supporting the Bishop's School Visitor network and recruiting new Visitors.
• Running nine termly RE liaison groups for church and community schools throughout the diocese. This also involved writing and production of RE packs on “Foundation RE” (written solely by Mrs Penny Kite) and “Collective worship ”, as well as the Godly Play materials mentioned above.
• Governor training sessions and individual work with school staff and governors on request.
• Supporting the Church School (Section 23) Inspection programme.
• Continuing the Church Schools Eco initiative.

Dr Shirley Hall

Ministry and Adult Learning

Officer: The Revd Canon Les Oglesby (Adult Education)
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/adult

Adult learning

Some 130 parishes in the diocese used the diocesan Lent Course we produced, Encounters with Jesus, which aimed to help people relate biblical material with contemporary experience of Christian discipleship.

A major project was the second Odyssey residential event held at Caister over the Passion Sunday weekend on the theme, Passionate for Christ: Embracing God’s World. The children’s and young people’s programmes were integrated with those for the adults, and the bible studies followed on from the diocesan Lent course and were linked in terms of content with those at the Bishop’s Conference at High Leigh in May.

Restructured Post

During the year, the Ministry and Adult Learning Council was disbanded and the post of Adult Education Officer and co-ordinator of MALT was restructured from June as Director of Ministerial and Adult Learning. The post is located in both the Board of Education and Training and the Council for Mission and Ministry. A panel has been formed to assist in steering the development of this post.

‘All Good Gifts Around Us’

Since June I have been serving with others on the Bishop’s Council group set up to implement the mission and ministry strategy, with particular involvement in the development of guidelines for identifying mission communities locally and in the planning for training for new lay ministries.

Review of Ministry

In the second half of the year, I have been involved together with Canon Peter Sills on Bishop Anthony’s behalf in final preparations for the introduction of revised arrangements for ministerial review. This is now provided for stipendiary clergy, together with some non-stipendiary clergy and lay diocesan officers, on an annual basis, either by members of the Bishop’s senior staff or by episcopally appointed reviewers. This will involve some 160 participants each year. The review meetings aim to strengthen mission and ministry, to offer an expression of pastoral care, and to identify areas for development.

Post-ordination Training:

I took over responsibility for this area of work from Petertide. The programme makes provision for the thirty stipendiary and non-stipendiary clergy in their first three years following ordination. Changes to the shape of the provision offers a programme accessible for non-stipendiaries in secular employment, and through an enlargement of the tutor group, more focussed work in year groups. Training incumbents are being involved in partnership to ensure that each new minister has training agenda which reflects personal and other development needs.

Continuing Ministerial Eductaion

Responsibility for CME has involved a contribution to the Bishop’s Conference, the administration of grant requests, assisting those who are preparing for Extended Study Leave, enabling participation by clergy in CME opportunities sponsored by the dioceses of the eastern region, and the provision of a number of occasional CME days.

Partnership in Ministerial and Adult Learning

Promotion of the lifelong learning of all adult Christians in discipleship and ministry for the sake of God’s mission in the world involves me in a number of ongoing partnership links - with others from the Board of Education and training; the Board for Church and Society (on issues related to cultural diversity and racial justice); the Spirituality Advisory Group, the Stewardship Advisory Group, the Readers’ Board, the Focus Institute, the World Mission Group, and the Cathedral. I have begun producing a termly Ministerial and Adult Learning Bulletin.

‘Formation for Ministry within a Learning Church’ (2003)

Following the Hind Report, work has begun on identifying the regions, which will then each form a Regional Training Partnership, in which dioceses, other theological institutions and ecumenical partners will be responsible for the provision of post-ordination training, continuing ministerial education and for ‘Education for Discipleship’ as well as initial training

Canon Les Oglesby

Youth Council

Chair: Revd Canon Dr John Inge / Revd Andrew Milton
Youth Officer: David Waters CA
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/youth

In 2003, the Diocesan Youth Council furthered its commitment to encourage and resource parish churches in their ministry amongst young people. Its work over recent years has played an important role in the increase in the number of young people having contact with churches in 2002/3, particularly in some isolated rural areas. The Council’s targets were achieved in the following ways.

Parish Support

The Council assisted six churches to begin various youth projects in their area whilst still supporting the six projects set up by the youth officer in 2002. The new projects included the parishes of Littlington in the south, Upwood and Stanground in the North and Holywell in the centre of the diocese. The youth officer also visits well-established youth groups to lead sessions and build relationships with both leaders and young people.

Diocesan Youth Events

The Council provided three events as set out in their development plan. Rave in the Nave 2003 was the most successful so far with almost 1200 young people attending. The event has become one of, if not ‘the’ biggest Christian Youth events in East Anglia. This diocese was certainly the only diocese in the East of England to hold such an event in 2003. The second event was the youth programme at ‘Odyssey 2’. 40 young people aged 11-17 took part in games, quizzes, bible studies and drama. The event was supported by very popular Christian illusionist, Peter McCahon and ‘Fly’ Christian basketball team. The third event was a training event for youth leaders called ‘Toolkit 2003’. This offered workshops on all aspects of youth work including worship ideas for young people.

Secondary School Support

The Council led training days on the subject of ‘collective worship’ and ‘after-school clubs’ during 2003. These took place in various locations around the diocese and included both clergy and laity training. There were also visits to schools where staff were offered the chance to contribute ideas and be offered new resources. It has also provided extra training for two people wishing to learn more about schools outreach. The Council also provided financial support for the visit of the Christian basketball team and music/drama youth group to tour schools in the diocese.

Clergy/Laity Training Events

In addition to the Toolkit event, the executive officer visited parishes, chapters and deanery synods in 2003 to both encourage churches in their youth work and offer training sessions. This training has included child-protection issues when working with teenagers, ‘theology through films training sessions’ and ‘Youth Culture today’.

Website

The Youth Council’s website received many ‘hits’ this year. Visits increased greatly around the time of Rave/Nave when people could download photographs of the bands etc. It also included useful information concerning all aspects of youth work, training events and links to websites offering valuable new Christian youth-work resources.

New Resources

The Council has provided new books and videos for churches to borrow from the resources centre. These have included ‘Youth Emmaus’, video discussion series’ such as ‘10’ – based on the ten commandments, new scripts for young people’s drama groups and books for young people themselves to read about the Christian faith and written with young readers in mind.

Whilst there is still much more to do in 2004, the Council’s five year vision and on-going commitment to assist churches in their Christian outreach will continue. The Council believes it vital to focus its work at ‘grass-roots’ parish church level rather than simply attend government/local council/youth organisation business meetings. Therefore the youth Council budget will continue to be spent on local parish church youth outreach projects and the resources needed to maintain them at a local level.

Captain David Waters CA

Children’s Council

Chair: Ruth Bond
Children’s Work Adviser: Gill Ambrose
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/children

Consultancy and Presentations

The Adviser provided consultancy or specific individual training in 43 parishes over the course of the year and ran events in 3 deaneries.

Worship, Liturgy and Children and Communion

Five more parishes began to admit children to Holy Communion before confirmation during the year bringing the total to 63.

A considerable proportion of the Adviser’s work is concerned with providing support for parishes in developing worship for all ages. In relation to all this, the Adviser and a Council member, Carolynn Pritchard, took part in a consultation on the forthcoming texts, Rites on the Way, being developed by the Liturgical Commission.

Godly Play

Godly Play continued to be a growth area for work during the year. 33 courses were held in the Godly Play room in Cambridge. A wide variety of participants included children’s workers, ordinands, clergy and readers with people travelling from across England as well as across the diocese. We were particularly pleased that some of our visitors from Vellore were able to take part in a study day during their stay in the diocese. Godly Play was also taken to Europe on two occasions during the year with Dr Rebecca Nye, a Council member who researches children’s spirituality in the Divinity Faculty of Cambridge University, teaching a course in Finland, and she and the Adviser teaching in Germany, both in our link church of the North Elbe and also in Brandenburg and Berlin. The host churches funded these courses and we are pleased that work brought from America, and pioneered in this country in Ely diocese, has now been found supportive by some of our European partners. Another milestone was that teaching about Godly Play at Odyssey 2 in March was given by lay people from the Cheveley and Woodditton group of parishes. Permanent Godly Play facilities have now been developed in a number of parishes around the diocese.

Building a Better World

The Council joined with Peterborough diocese’s Children’s Committee, Christian Aid and John Hardwick to provide an all day children’s pre-Advent event, Building a Better World, held in a church school in Peterborough for participants from both dioceses on Saturday 8 th November. The event included worship and workshops focussing on life and development in particular countries around the world. The partnership was very productive and it is intended that the event should be repeated in other areas of the two dioceses in the future.

American conference

In February the Adviser was privileged to be one of three British delegates invited to attend the national conference of the American Episcopal Church on Christian formation. It proved to be an inspiring and educative experience. Among the immediate benefits were access to many new resources on Christian formation, helpful contacts with expertise from both the USA and around the Anglican communion, and inspiration for the Sunday morning session of Odyssey 2. Among the workshop tracks available, the one offering learning about racism awareness proved especially helpful, drawing, as it did, on the pioneering work of the American Episcopal Church is this field.

Thank you

Ruth Bond retired from the Council at the end of the year. She had chaired our meetings for the last three years and we are indebted to her for all she has done to serve and support work with children in the diocese.

Gill Ambrose

Child Protection Reference Group

Chair: The Revd Stephen Leeke
The Bishop’s Child Protection Adviser: Elizabeth Ingram

Elizabeth Ingram retired from her role as Bishop’s Child Protection Adviser at the end of the year. We should, perhaps, be grateful that she did not have a high profile here, for this is testimony to the fact that there have been few ‘incidents’ which required her expertise. But this is also testimony to the quiet wisdom and advice which she has provided when required over a number of years, which have ensured that difficulties have been professionally and quietly managed. Those who have needed her advice and support have been immensely grateful for it. Elizabeth attended a lunch with the Bishop’s staff at which a presentation was made to mark her retirement. Her successor is Virginia Bird.

The provision of regular training and advice have been the mainstay of the Group’s work over the year. There were two half-day sessions especially for clergy, and regular twice-termly evening sessions offered in different venues around the diocese in addition to training provided in the course of other wider training events. Towards the end of the year the group’s Chairman attended the first national conference for diocesan child protection officers.

Gill Ambrose