es-team (Edinburgh Schools Team)

Introduction

Since 2004 the es-team project has been seeking to establish and support a vibrant witness in all Edinburgh schools.   Each member of staff works in an area of the city with both primary and secondary schools and local churches.   To enable this, we have divided the city into 4 geographical clusters (North, South, East and West) and one cluster incorporating all of the Independent Schools.  At present, the West of the city is vacant and being covered by existing staff.

Over the past five years, we have seen opportunities in schools steadily increase and many fruitful relationships between churches and schools developing.  We've seen the number of SU groups in schools rise and opportunity to lead assemblies and RME lessons multiply across the city.  Over the years, we've found that schools catering for young people with Additional Needs are very keen for our support and we have growing work in these schools. 

Many ongoing activities seek to enable SU groups to meet together:

The Big One - P4 - P7
Banter (seniors Bible Study) S3 - S6
Powerpoint (S1 - S6)

Throughout the year a variety of weekends are organised as well as a summer holiday for the East of Scotland. Staff are always on the lookout for new opportunities and volunteers. If you would like to get involved with this project please contact the es-team worker for your area or email esteam@suscotland.org.uk.

Presentations

Over the last two years, SU workers in Edinburgh, Midlothian and East Lothian have worked together with local churches to deliver Christmas and Easter presentations to a number of primary schools.

These presentations are aimed at children in P6 and P7, helping them to discover the true Christian meaning behind these familiar festivals. An hour and a half is packed with activities, crafts, quizzes and songs as well as having the chance to find out what the Bible has to say about Christmas and Easter. Children have the opportunity to meet "the Nutty Professor" who answers their questions about Christmas and Easter and points out some of the common misconceptions people have - did you know that no where in the Bible does it mention that Mary rode to Bethlehem on a donkey!

While the presentations are based on material originally created by Wayne Dixon, a Scripture Union worker in Slough, es-team have worked over the last couple of years to put together our own versions. Team handbooks with step by step instructions as well as children's booklets have been produced to enable people elsewhere to run such the presentations. These booklets are available to download on the right hand side of this page.  A CD ROM is also available with additional resources for running the presentations.  To get a copy of this, or for more information about the presentations, please email esteam@suscotland.org.uk or phone (0131) 445 4125.