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FE chaplains wanted to take part in exciting Renew Well-Being Pilot!

In responding to the needs expressed by colleges we are looking to partner with Renew Wellbeing and offer an introduction to their approach to wellbeing that has been so successful in churches and is now being extended to young people in a range of settings and in particular FE.

Renew Wellbeing helps churches open spaces of welcome and inclusion in partnership with mental health teams to improve mental and emotional wellbeing. This successful outreach is now being extended to include young people in schools and colleges and their families.

Please contact Nigel Roberts (fechaplaincy[at]saltleytrust.org.uk) to register your interest. An introductory session is set for 25 August, 10am, with full training to follow for those wishing to pursue the project further.

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New WM Further Education Chaplaincy Ambassador!

We’re really pleased to announce the appointment of Nigel Roberts as WM FE Chaplaincy Ambassador!

Nigel has worked for 36 years with Youth for Christ, during which time he has led a number of local centres, headed up the education team ay head office and now holds the position of education advisor on secondment to CYM ( the institute for children youth and mission) where he is a tutor specialising in chaplaincy and education issues. In the past 17 years he has worked part time in schools in a community chaplaincy role retiring from that post 18 months ago. Nigel worships at a Baptist church in Ashby de la zouch and preaches on a methodist circuit. He currently leads the online worship for children and young people in his church. He has written a number of books including Explore the Christian faith, Faith and Drama, Chaplaincy with Children and Young People and Growing Faithful Disciples.
He is married to Gillian with 4 grandchildren and loves bird watching, basketball, theatre and doctor who. He is an avid collector of classic american comic books and runs a youth and film theatre group who have performed widely and won a number of awards.
He has a passion for chaplaincy and is looking forward to finding new ways to inspire and support those involved in or thinking of this ministry.  You can contact him on fechaplaincy[at]saltleytrust.org,uk
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Faith in Further Education – launch of new C of E report

On 29 April the Church of England launched their new report on the Church’s engagement with the Further Education sector… and we’re in it!  Vocation, Transformation and Hope recommends local churches take an intentional approach to partnering with their local college through chaplaincy or other forms of shared contribution to the life of the community.  It’s also recommended that Anglican dioceses build a strategy for FE into their strategic planning, and revitalise a network of paid or voluntary FE development officers – a bit like the WM’s own FE Chaplaincy Ambassador.

You can read a summary and download the full report here.

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ROUNDED – New SMSC Resource for 16-19s!

ROUNDED – Ready for Life  is WMCFEC’s new interactive, flexible format resource for exploring key character dispositions with 16-19s.  The resource covers six themes common to many religions and worldviews, from a broad Christian perspective, through a 10 minute ineractive PowerPoint film plus a suite of supporting activities that can be tailored to group size, time and space available.

ROUNDED has been created by Simeon Whiting, commissioned by WM Churches’ FE Council and designed by Mazo Creative Agency, with voice work from the Saltmine Theatre Company.

You can download ROUNDED here (link to Google Drive).

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Chaplaincy, Wellbeing and Faith Webinar

Recently 175 people participated in the webinar Chaplaincy, Wellbeing and Faith, with speakers including Dr Justin Varney, Director of Public Health for Birmingham, and Carol Wilson, Head of Spiritual Care for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust.  You can watch the webinar here.  Thanks to Paul Chesterman and David Butterworth of Birmingham Methodist District’s Mission in the Economy team, for sharing this.  Their latest newsletter also includes a piece from WM FE Chaplaincy Ambassador Phil Metcalf.  Sign up for this newsletter by emailing paul.chesterman[at]birminghammethodist.org.uk.

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Preparation in Exile – supporting young people in college (event)

WMCFEC member Rob Chivers writes: ‘At SCM we are exploring what this time means through the lens of an exile narrative, and would like to invite youth workers who work with 16-19’s and 6th Form chaplains to the next of our Preparation in Exile Zoom meetings on Wednesday 18th November, 11am-12pm.
During this event we will be skill-sharing our ideas and thoughts for the upcoming year. For example, how can we support young people going to university in 2021/22, and what will it look like to welcome students back after the first term?
Email rob@movement.org.uk or PM us for the Zoom details! Details will be messaged out on the day of the event for any who marks themselves as “attending”.’
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New Theos Report on Social Cohesion

The think-tank Theos have just published a new report on social cohesion, which will be interesting brain-food for college managers, equality and diversity officers, chaplains and others in the FE sector concerned with the creation of cohesive college environments.  There are some interesting reflections on the ways in which ‘faith’ has been understood within discourse on social cohesion. You can download the report here.  (Recommending you read it does not imply WMCFEC’s official endorsement – simply that it is good food for thought!).

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Remembrance and Rainbows – EXTRA! Workshop for FE & 6th Form Chaplains

Wednesday 1 July 2020, 10.00-11.30 on Zoom.

Book now for this FREE virtual workshop for FE and 6th Form chaplains on supporting your college after lockdown.

Register here (advance booking helpful, so that we know how many to expect).  This workshop has been planned by members of WMCFEC, Centre for Chaplaincy in Education, Festive and Chaplaincy Central.

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Faith Tutorials are back!

faithtutorials.co.uk is a bank of free-to-download, ready to use tutorial resources specially designed for FE Colleges, and created by the chaplaincy team at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College over a number of years.

After a little gap, faith tutorials are coming back online, specifically in response to a growing number of requests from colleges looking for online material to use with students during the COVID-19 crisis.  There are 24 sets of material in all, covering major religious festivals, general moral/ethical topics, and designed for students of all faiths and none.

A new bespoke website will be launched later in the year, but for the moment you can access some of the materials from the St Peter’s Saltley Trust website here (with topics gradually being added, so keep watching the page).

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Integrating SMSC within Teaching and Learning in FE

Integrating SMSC within Teaching and Learning in Further Education is a new resource designed to giving FE teaching staff the confidence to draw out the spiritual, moral, social and cultural implications of their curriculum areas out of the content they cover.

Developed from a project involving three Midlands colleges, the centrepiece of the resource is a grid of discussion starter topics for many of the common curriculum areas colleges cover, along with a number of worked examples and a substantial introduction exploring how and why SMSC should be fully integrated within teaching and learning – not just left as a bolt-on extra for tutorial and enrichment time,

The resource has been written by Dr John Wise (former CEO of fbfe, the National Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Further Education), Dr Ian Jones (of St Peter’s Saltley Trust).  The discussion starter grid has been developed from an original idea by staff at Peterborough Regional College, and used with permission.

The report is available as a free download here.