I often hear people complain about the lack of Christian input in our schools; over the past week I have been into two Primary Schools, one a Church School the other not.
In the non-Chruch affiliated School, they sang a worship song and prayed, they also knew how many books were in the Bible, knew about the Old and New Testaments, they knew that there was different literature to be found and could even name some. They had a poster on the wall that each class had put something into showing stories and a time line.
In the Church School the children were welcomed to worship, they sang a worship song, lit a candle and prayed. To my astonishment when greeted with "The Lord be with you" they instantly responded "And also with you".They did not know how many books were in the Bible, nor anything about the different literature they might find in it. They did recognise some of the stories in our quick Bible run through (with actions and props). The posters on their walls were about bullying and respect.
It was interesting to contrast these two schools but I am glad to say that in both schools we were welcomed warmly and the children listened attentively and joined in when asked. We will be going back to both with Open the Book teams. Hopefully we will one day gain the great accolade that our team in Norfolk received "wow, you are better than Eastenders!!!!"
