In a quiet corner of rural England, two school teachers have introduced an educational initiative that is changing the lives of schoolchildren along with their families and local communities. In a brief interview during our latest RM Together Online, many of us were left amazed by their story. In the week following, we followed up with Jacqui to discover the amazing story behind this community-transforming reading project.

Nestled within the ‘elbow’ on the eastern coast of England is Norfolk, a county where Relational Mission has historical roots: home to Mike Betts, the founding apostle of our family of churches, as well as many of our church families. It is also where you will find Jacqui and Rachel, the creators of the Life Education initiative - but it wasn’t until recently that they came to know one another.

Connections: People and prophecies

Jacqui, from Wellspring Family Church in Dereham, is the headteacher of two small rural Norfolk primary schools. She particularly has a heart for disadvantaged children and knows the power of education to transform their lives, the lives of their families and even change their communities.

Rachel is also a headteacher working across ‘short stay schools’ in Norfolk, which provide education for children who have been permanently excluded from schools. Needless to say, Rachel also has such a heart for marginalised and disadvantaged students.

Despite both working in education for many years - with approximately 50 years of education experience between them - their paths rarely crossed. That all changed in December 2020 when Jacqui received a prophetic word about a 'God-given initiative to pioneer and spearhead in school life'…

After seeking God for more detail, he clearly spoke to Jacqui about an intervention for children on the margins who were at risk of exclusion from school. At the time, He also impressed the word 'coastlands' on her heart, which didn’t make any sense to her. A short distance away God was also stirring Rachel, from Sheringham Life Church, about some kind of educational project connecting the school and the church. She shared it with her elder, Richard Allen, and not long after, Jon Beardon - an elder of Wellspring Family Church in Dereham - joined the dots and put Rachel and Jacqui in contact with each other.

What a blessing that connection was! Two experienced headteachers, both with a God-given heart for the most disadvantaged children, discovering how God was stirring the two of them along the same lines! In the following months they met, prayed and waited on God to learn what this initiative was and what it wasn't. In time, the vision for Life Education came into focus: a partnership between the school and church providing intervention for children with low reading ages who were on the periphery of school, at risk of exclusion, and disadvantaged. The intervention would meet a practical need - helping children to become competent readers - but it was to be so much more.

Reading: the door to opportunity

The percentage of children with low reading ages who are permanently excluded from schools is stark, and the percentage of the prison population with a low reading age is equally shocking. A good reading ability is needed to access the entirety of the secondary curriculum at high school; entering high school unable to read well makes it more likely for children to find themselves on the outer edges or falling out of the school system entirely because of a refusal to engage or a disruptive manner resulting in suspension or permanently exclusion.

For Jacqui and Rachel, reading was just the start. They wanted the intervention to focus on the development of oracy as well; the vocabulary gap of a child brought up in a disadvantaged household begins from a very young age and only becomes wider as time progresses. They also wanted the intervention to show these children that they are valuable - special enough for a key worker to spend one to one time with them twice a week building confidence.

Behind the scenes: provision

Rachel and Jacqui were not the only ones God had been speaking to. Remember Jacqui’s word, ‘coastlands’? God had been busy preparing a work force for Life Education at Sheringham Life Church - located less than half a mile from Sheringham Beach! A team of workers from many different backgrounds gathered to the vision and in faith - before final agreements had been drawn up and key details set in stone - Jacqui and Rachel started to train them.

The birthing of this vision was not without its challenges. Building a partnership with the local school when their leadership were very busy took time, and other barriers along the way at times felt insurmountable, but Life Education is a 'God-given initiative' and He made a way where there often felt that there was no way! There was a lot of prayer behind the birthing of this initiative and continues to be for each session.

Building friendships

A fundamental part of this intervention is for key workers to work one-to-one with a child so Sheringham Life Church keeps the number of children accessing Life Education low.

Six or seven carefully chosen and school-referred children access the project every term. Twice a week, the school transports the children to the church building where key workers and volunteers wait to greet them with slices of toast and a drink. Stomachs satisfied, they move to a room that has been set up with a space for each child to read comfortably with their key worker. The child and adult may take turns to read and then talk about the book, but there’s also space to talk about the child’s day or week. Next, it’s time for a craft activity or game that provides even more speaking and listening opportunities. As the session ends, parents arrive to collect the children and are greeted by volunteers and a hot drink, who willingly offer a friendly listening ear and signpost parents to other church activities, resources and provision.

Changes

These Life Education sessions quickly become a highlight in the children's week, even for those not so keen to begin with. The school reports a great growth in their confidence and the impact on their reading ages has been extraordinary to see.

They’ve witnessed wonderful moments: a child bringing a reading record with only one entry from an adult for the previous eight months now proudly showing her teacher a reading record with twice-weekly entries from her key worker. Who knows what anxiety this may have removed from their school day, and what a boost to their self esteem it is?

There is the 9 year old who was very reluctant to attend Life Education and definitely did not want to read! Over the weeks he was transformed: keen to attend, helping serve toast and drinks (and even making sure the adults received some refreshments too), becoming more confident with his reading and making rapid reading progress in a short space of time. He was so disappointed to move on from the project that he (briefly!) considered pretending to be a poor reader again so he could keep coming!

We can only imagine what the impact on these children and families will be as relationships are formed with God's people and prayer is invested in them.

Looking beyond

From the very beginning, Jacqui and Rachel sensed that the initiative was not just for Sheringham, or even Norfolk, but was to be a model that could be replicable throughout this nation and beyond. They would be thrilled to provide for other churches interested in setting up a similar project all that they can: advice about the project, service level agreement templates, letter templates, flyers for parents, guidance for making contact with your local school, training materials for your key workers and volunteers, as well as a simple manual influenced by their lessons learnt.

Here’s Jacqui’s final words: “I think Rachel and I would both summarise a Life Education session as being THE most beautiful thing we have ever seen! Christ's Bride loving the marginalised and disadvantaged in a very practical, life transforming way - being Jesus.”