Regional Worker for Edinburgh South and East
Hello! I’m Lesley and I work with SU Scotland in South and East Edinburgh as well as coordinating the Bible Alive initiative. There are lots of great opportunities in the area and I’m pleased to share about some of those with you here.
Schools
The South and East Edinburgh area includes:
Boroughmuir High
Castlebrae Community High
Gracemount High
Holy Rood High
James Gillespie's High
Liberton High
Portobello High
St Thomas of Aquins High
Tynecastle High
along with all their associated primary schools and four special needs schools within the area.
There are many open doors in schools and it is great to have several SU Groups in the area, giving pupils the chance to explore the Bible, as well as to have opportunities to provide input to the curriculum such as Bible Alive, Christmas and Easter presentations, RME lessons and assemblies.
Of course this is only possible because of a dedicated team of volunteers, and there is always a need for more people to get involved, so if you would be interested in finding out more about this, please get in touch.
Bible Alive
Bible Alive is a programme designed to give children in P5-P7 an overview of the Bible as part of the RME curriculum using props, costumes, music, drama, video clips and British Sign Language. It is amazing to see the response as pupils discover that the Bible is relevant and exciting, and as they begin to understand how it fits together as one story.
As well as presenting Bible Alive and supporting volunteers within South and East Edinburgh to present the programme, I also have the wider role of Bible Alive Coordinator with responsibility for organising training courses throughout Scotland and supporting people in delivering the programme throughout Scotland.
Holidays & Weekends
Residentials are a great opportunity to deepen relationships with young people and to provide more time for them to explore the Bible together. Each February I lead a weekend at Lendrick Muir for children in P5-P7 from around Edinburgh, and I am also involved in SU Holidays at Easter and in the summer. You can find out more about SU Holidays here.
We also run COmMISSION events for senior pupils to help them grow in faith and to equip them to live out their faith and share it with others. Please take a look and consider if there are any young people in your church who might benefit from this training.
Churches
SU Scotland aims to support churches as they look to engage with young people in their local communities and I would love to hear from you if there is any way I could assist you in this. For example - training and supporting volunteers to run Christmas and Easter lessons in a local primary school, supporting a holiday club or mission or speaking to your youth group about SU events and training opportunities. Please get in touch if you’d like to talk more about this.
Local Events
As well as schools work and residentials, there are other SU Scotland events for young people in Edinburgh:
Spotlight: monthly group for S1-S2 with games, food, worship and Bible study
Equip: monthly group for S3-S6 looking at some of the big questions the young people, or their friends, may have about God and Christianity
Powerpoint: a large youth event with worship and Bible teaching
Prayer
One of SU Scotland’s values is dependence on God and so prayer is a key part of what we do.
If you would like to receive termly news and prayer updates on SU’s work in Edinburgh, please contact me and I’ll make sure you are added to the list to receive these.
We are also trying to encourage people to pray for their local schools, and ultimately to see every school in Scotland being prayed for. You can find out more about Pray For Schools Scotland, and register to pray for your local school(s) here.
Thank you for taking the time to read about SU’s work in South and East Edinburgh. If you’d like to get involved through volunteering, praying, or supporting the work financially, I’d love to hear from you!
