A colourful garden featuring sensory plants and a prayer space has been created at Belleek Controlled Primary School involving the entire school community but also the Church of Ireland parishes from the Garrison group.

One of the driving forces behind the environmental project was the Revd Rebecca Guildea, Rector of the Garrison Group, who has children attending the school, who completed a series of sponsored runs over three months last year to raise part funding to be matched by the Church of Ireland Board of Education. As a result of the fundraising, Rebecca raised well in excess of the target, with £1,500 donated to towards the project.

The official opening of the garden took place on Tuesday, 26 September, when the ribbon was cut by local woman Sue Deacon, who had been assisting with garden design since the initial idea was suggested.

Also participating in the opening was the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Mr John Ovens, as well as principal, Mrs Nicola Young, and the Revd Rebecca Guildea, who led the prayers.

Attending were teaching, administrative and ancillary staff as well as many of the pupils and their parents.

Mrs Young said the school was in a rural setting and the new garden replaced old redundant play equipment. The new resource would be used by teachers. She described it as a wonderful outdoor space and the plan going forward is to encourage the pupils with its maintenance.

Mr John Ovens said the Board of Education had earmarked a grant of £1,000 to be match–funded by the local community. But Rebecca jogged 160 miles over three months to raise over £1,500. It was her idea of a sensory garden.

Rebecca said there were a lot of challenges along the way but their trust was in God that it would be created. She thanked everyone getting involved with digging and moving soil and described it as a beautiful space for everyone to enjoy and to take care for.

Everyone was invited for refreshments afterwards.

Christians can model a warm sense of covenant and hospitality in how they provide education on behalf of the state, leading educationalist Professor Trevor Cooling said on Monday evening (20th March) as he delivered the Church of Ireland’s 65th Annual Theological Lecture at Queen’s.

Professor Cooling, from Canterbury Christ Church University, was speaking at Stranmillis University College, which is currently marking its centenary year. He suggested that there is a difficulty when facts are elevated above values as everyone interprets knowledge in certain ways depending on the values which they hold. “We are all people of faitph,” he remarked, “because knowledge is not just something ‘out there’ – it is personal; it is something we interact with as human beings.”

Drawing on the thinking of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin, he noted that the Church had a role in preparing lay people for their vocation and in order to do this well, lay people also need to think very carefully about their context. The theologian Professor NT Wright, for example, has compared applying the Bible in modern societies to discovering an unfinished Shakespearean play with four chapters already written and asking a group of specialists to write endings for it. The result should be “consistent with the authority of the first four acts but will be innovative, depending on the interests and concerns of the specialist writer.”

One innovative application, highlighted by a research project which studied teachers working in church schools in England, was made by a PE teacher who explored how he could teach the push–pass in hockey. This meant teaching the move and then encouraging students to partner in twos and help each other to improve their performance, therefore modelling a Christian theology of servanthood rather than the populist influence of élite performance.

In another setting, a primary school teacher explored how practical hospitality to the stranger (as lived out through the Old and New Testaments) can be a very positive value in our society today.  In a science lesson, co–operating as a group in a way that makes the newcomer feel like a contributor, with a curiosity about his or her views, also shows the Christian faith in practice in schools (as well as developing an understanding of how scientific teams work).  Teachers who wish to explore this theme can find out more on the www.whatiflearning.com website, which is intentionally built around concrete examples of teachers connecting Christian faith with their teaching.

This approach also reshapes how we think about salvation, so that we think in terms of God’s promised new Heaven and new Earth, and the promise of a resurrected life to share in that reality.  Professor Cooling concurred with NT Wright’s conclusion that what we do with our lives “in the present matters because God has a great future in store.” Christian teachers therefore have an important role as providing a faithful presence and as ambassadors of God’s Kingdom – a life defined by being lived in God’s way that points to God’s promised future – in the places where they serve.

In a diverse society, he outlined two approaches to disagreement – the consensus of conforming to a ‘secular’ position, or being part of a coalition whereby people who fundamentally disagree with each other live well together in the same space.  And, in conclusion, he noted that covenant in a biblical sense offered a powerful theological model for church schools where everyone is valued and feels that they belong.

Professor Cooling’s career has taken him from working as a secondary school teacher to lecturing in theology, and serving as a diocesan adviser and as CEO of a Christian education charity.  He also chairs a primary school board of governors.  He was welcomed by the Bishop of Down and Dromore, the Rt Revd David McClay, and the College’s Principal, Dr Jonathan Heggarty.  Attendees put their questions to him in a thoughtful and wide–ranging Q&A session immediately following the lecture.

Please click on the link below to catch up on the full lecture:

Why should churches be involved in education?  Peter Hamill, Secretary of our Board of Education (Northern Ireland) had a chat with Professor Cooling on this question before the lecture.

A full photo gallery from the evening:

With thanks to David Pope for photography and James Poston Films for videography.

A lively discussion involving around 50 representatives from churches, schools and a range of other key organisations with a role in education took place in Portadown, on Friday (25th March 2022) with a view to helping our children and young people to reach their full potential.

The workshop at Seagoe Parish Centre was hosted by the Transferor Representatives’ Council – representing the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian Church and Methodist Churches in relation to education in Northern Ireland – and focused on a new research report from Stranmillis University College, Beyond the Stereotype: Approaches to Educational Under(Achievement) in the Controlled Sector in Northern Ireland.

The study, which was commissioned and funded by the TRC, aims to go ‘beyond the stereotype’ of the well-documented challenge of underachievement among Protestant working-class boys from disadvantaged inner-city communities, and to ‘cast the net wider’ to provide a broader and more representative picture.  Particular challenges in rural communities, which have not been reported extensively to date in previous studies, are identified with some school leaders speaking of the difficulty in motivating boys to work hard towards GCSEs.

Significantly, Beyond the Stereotype also finds that while pupils view educational achievement as largely related to success in external exams (such as GCSEs and A-levels), many school and community leaders (including employers) place greater value on a wider range of skills and abilities, and pupils’ mental and physical health, self-confidence, happiness and willingness to learn.

Dr Noel Purdy, who led the research through Stranmillis’ Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement, said: “We’ve certainly identified lots of challenges – there are big challenges facing controlled schools and indeed every school in Northern Ireland – but what we did see was a diverse, committed, community-orientated and innovative sector which is committed to maximising achievement for all children.  In other words, allowing all the children in schools to stand tall and achieve to their full potential.”

The TRC represents its member churches in all matters of education in the region, and oversees the appointment of over 1,500 governors to controlled schools.  The three churches transferred (hence the origin of transferors) their school buildings, pupils and staff into state control on the understanding that the Christian ethos of these schools would be maintained.

More information on the work of the Centre for Research in Educational Underachievement (CREU) can be found at www.stran.ac.uk/research/creu

Please see gallery below for more photos from the workshop.