Students from the Gryphon, Sherborne Primary, and Sherborne Abby Primary schools led the town’s first 'Children's and Young People’s Networking Event' earlier this week.
Stephanie Rann, Head of Religious Education at the Gryphon school, gave a brief introduction to the event before handing the reigns of the discussion to the students. She was confident that the budding young students would lead the conversations with the local organisations and do a great job while doing so – and they did.
Stephanie said: “Lots of great ideas were exchanged between the young people and representatives of local organisations."
Invites to the local organisations which connect with young people were supplied by the Town Council, bringing a range of guests from Tennis Clubs to Foodbanks. They had previously already met the young people involved in the event at a series of diocesan Community Hub consultation events, and were so impressed that they insisted the students lead the discussions.
The Mayor, Juliet Pentolfe, described it as: "A fantastic event."
The students will now choose their priority projects to take forward in the next few weeks, supported by local church and school leaders alongside the Town Council’s Wellbeing Committee. A group of other local leaders also committed to supporting the young people in their next steps.
The Revd Lorna Johnson, Development Advisor of the Community Hub Project, said : "It was, as my old Sarum College Principal would say, a place where rubber hits the road. It puts to the test the National Church’s ‘Growing Faith’ approach, which remembers that Jesus told us if we try to see through children’s eyes, we will catch a vision of what community life could be. In Sherborne, the local church and schools have faith that supporting and focusing on young people's ideas and passion will produce an equally passionate community response. This is now sparking up networks and projects with the potential to co create changes to Sherborne for the good of everyone. Church and school leaders walking beside young people, families and the wider town have the opportunity to share what they know about building flourishing communities and the adventure of discovering meaning, well-being and vocation by helping others.”
The excitement, boldness, creativity was palpable in the room that day and everyone looked forward to working together on the next steps of the project. At the time where the students had to leave to return to their schools, a Town Council worker noted: "Oh dear, we've gone back to adult mode haven't we!"
If you would like to learn more about the Community Hub or Growing Faith approach, please don’t hesitate to contact Lizzie Whitbread, our Senior Youth Advisor at: lizzie.whitbread@salisbury.anglican.org.