This is a STOP PRESS announcement from Damaris Trust - the last chance for schools to buy tickets for the Global Student Forum on the theme ‘Everybody wants a Peace’. The Global Student Forum is open to all sixth formers - 2 teachers from schools and sixth form colleges are invited to bring 10 students to participate in the day - meeting in Westminster, London on Monday 30th June 2008. Then, they return as peer educators to their school, equipped with resources to encourage others to be peacemakers. The cost is £300 + VAT (excluding travel) and you may book using the application form from our website - www.globalstudentforum.org/england. A limited number of bursaries are available for schools that genuinely cannot afford the full cost. A bursary covers 50% of the school partnership fee - so the school only pays £150 plus VAT.

One day conference
15th January 2008
At Church House - London

Very well attended over 180 people there for the keynote addresses.

There was a good representation from the FE sector. There was opportunity in the day to discuss the topics raised and feed back plus at the end of the day a number of seminars on practical issues.

This report is on three of the main talks and given from and FE perspective.

Bill Rammell MP (Minister of state for Lifelong learning, further and Higher Education)
He began by examining how chaplaincy in hospitals, industry, prison and the armed forces are not just all well received but integral to the work whilst there has been opposition in many quarters to the provision of chaplaincy in the education sector.

He quoted John Henry Newman to support his belief that education should have a spiritual as well as academic provision.

Quoting the work done by NEAFE and FIFE (Now united under the one National Council for Faith and Belief in Further Education – fbfe) he suggested that:
1. The UK is not as secular as some would make out.
2. Young people do consider it is important for there to be space for spiritual belief in college even if they themselves do no take advantage of it.

He saw that Chaplains were important in the colleges as they were in a position to oversee issues of faith and be instrumental in keeping exploitative practices used by extremists off campus.

He also stressed that FE colleges were primarily local and so the chaplain’s focus could be a local one – building good relationships with local faith communities and thus contributing to community cohesion.

He raised the matter of how far each faith could have their needs met in the UK and was of the opinion that it was wrong to raise the expectation of 100%. He thought that increased knowledge and sensitivity would help where there was a short fall.

The DECF is not ready to implement SMD in FE colleges but is keen to keep dialogue open as to how to progress.
(Interestingly in a question about the complex issue of multi faith relationships where faiths have exclusive truth claims the minister suggested that meaningful debates could take place where people were well versed in their own sacred texts but failed to suggest how they might get to such a position.)

He spoke of guidelines in the HE sector and how to prevent segregation, intimidation and bullying.

And Right Revd Dr Kenneth Stevenson (Bishop of Portsmouth and Chair, Church of England Board of Education)
The bishop touched on questions that concern chaplains today:
1. The validation of their position by their faith communities so that they therefore have a representational role.
2. Funding – the difference between HE and FE where the latter enjoys very little funding from outside the church except in recent times for some materials and studies.
3. The rise in the number of 16 – 18 year olds in education plus the proposal compulsory training for all up to 18 years would be an added burden in an already very stretched provision.
4. The question of the rise in the interest in faith amongst young people and the difficulty for many in accessing good understanding of faith. He quoted a sermon he had heard where the preacher suggested that interfaith work progressed when participants were secure in their own faith.

In a reply to a question he also touched on the practice in society of setting up confrontation as a way to engage not being helpful in multi faith work.

Paul Head (Principal, college of North East London and Chair, London Principals Group)Paul gave a very good overview of the secular FE College wrestling with how to interact with faith. There is a growing understanding that:
faith and belief are not left at the door
values drive actions
it is possible to create a safe and supportive environment
it is part of being a citizen of a democratic society.

He outlined what he saw as the management of faith:
Creating a community
Addressing ignorance and prejudice with discovering ways to resolve conflict and hear the learner voice.
Providing space probably a prayer room
Helping staff who are opposed to promotion of faith by demonstrating that this making space and integrating spiritual care into the care that is provided by the college.

This is important because colleges are not islands and there is a need both to be of benefit and to deal with the world we live in.

He concluded that there are those who still struggle with this but we are in days when doing nothing is not an option.

What would our strategy be and how could we take it forward on a fairly tight budget? We decided to go with a part time worker - Steph Bushell, publicity postcards and a website www.festive.org.uk.

Two and a half months later we are so encouraged to find that our website is listed on Google’s front page worldwide and comes in fourth on a UK search. We know that lots of people have been visiting the site and we have heard from people who have downloaded and successfully used our resources. So if you haven’t visited already - log on and see what you are missing. Oh and by the way if you are into that sort of thing you can also find us on facebook - Friends of Festive.

So whether you are looking for support or encouragement or you can help us to grow the resources and prayer wall please contact us - you can do that directly throught the website or by emailing at info@festive.org.uk.

Keynote Speakers: (some tbc)
Dr Kenneth Stevenson, Bishop of Portsmouth and Chair of Church of England
Board of Education
Bill Rammell, Minister of State for Further and Higher Education
Dr Les Ebdon, Vice-Chancellor, University of Bedfordshire and UUK
Paul Head, Principal, College of North East London and Chair, London Principals Group

Recent Reports on: Faiths in HE Chaplaincy; Islam in UK Universities; Guidance for FE Colleges on Multi-Faith Chaplaincy; All Faiths and None will be discussed at a Round Table session.

There will also be a strong emphasis on discussion and interaction between FE and HE chaplains in workshop sessions, with one group of sessions focusing on competing policy demands: e.g. Responding to Diversity and Community Cohesion. In the second group of workshop sessions the emphasis will be on managers and chaplains from HE and FE learning from their practical experience; trying to balance the different demands on their time, for example: Multi-Faith Teams, Pastoral Care, Working with Students and Staff, Curriculum Involvement, Worship and Space, Institutional Priorities, Funding, etc.

The Conference has baseline funding from the CofE Board of Education and is being organised in association with the Methodist Church, NEAFE and CHELG (the Churches’ Higher Education Liaison Group).

A booking form will be available shortly or you can reserve an early place by emailing: carole.brown@c-of-e.org.uk.

Making Space for Faith work: FE’s role in promoting community cohesion and preventing violent extremism

The FE sector is seen by government as playing a critical role in promoting community cohesion and preventing violent extremism. Drawing upon examples of collaborative local leadership and effective college practice documented in Making Space for Faith, the recently published report of the national enquiry into values beliefs and faiths (VBF) in further education, this seminar will explore the business case for responding to the VBF agenda, with particular emphasis on helping colleges develop leadership strategies and curriculum/student support provision to tackle extremism and encouraging integration. It presents colleges with a first opportunity to take part in the consultation on the sector wide cohesion action plan.

Multi-Faith Provision in Practice

This seminar will be an opportunity for principals and senior managers to experience at first hand how faiths can work together to meet the spiritual needs of students and staff of all faiths and none. The seminar will begin with worship and prayer from Christian, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim traditions led by NEAFE Regional Development Officers and chaplains from FE colleges. Participants will have an opportunity to questions the Regional Development Officers and chaplains afterwards.

Please draw these seminars to the attention of those attending AoC Conference from your colleges. Conference delegates can register for these seminars through the AoC Conference website.

At the recent dare2engage conference I showed the series of posters we used here in Luton schools last Easter. The response was overwhelming and very encouraging, so we’ve now put the jpegs of each of the 8 posters on this site for you to download. (Iby the way, it’s a large file just over 11Mb in size, so it’ll tajke a whil;e to download and you’ll need to unzip it). If you want higher resolution files or to borrow the mounted sets we had made, just get in touch with me through the normal dare2engage email address. The download is filed on the right hand side of this page under ‘recent publications’.

This report is the result of the work comissioned by the Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) in which NEAFE and FIFEF were asked to undertake a sector wide review of opportunities for spiritual and moral development in FE, focussing on a national enquiry in to values, beliefs and faiths in the Further Education system. The evidence was gathered and research undertaken by an independant and specialist organisation Purple International, a not-for-profit arm of Focus Consultancy Ltd.

The result is a piece of work that will be of great value to many. The aim is to inform everyone from policy makers to local college and recommends actions that should be taken. The information is primarily in the form of statistcal data and individual participant comment which makes for easy accessibility. The recommendations are divided into the various categories of readers from government and government funded agencies, the various levels of management in the colleges, other stakeholders and interested bodies and finally chaplains and the faith communities.

It is a good read for anyone with an interest in understanding of ‘faith’ and the hopes and fears of those who work and study in our colleges. It should inform prayer. It will definately provide a resource for all who want to see better provision in the future with plenty of quotable quotes! Maybe having read it you will feel you could recommend it to others to read. Oh and by the way you will also see an acknowledgement to Dare2Engage for participating in the work.

How can you get hold of a copy? Chaplains and Principals should get a hard copy by post. Others can obtain one either by post or in pdf form from the website www.neafe.org

A brave title that originated as a question put to Alan Murray in the context of provision of/or lack of provision of entitlement to spititual, moral, social and cultural development in FE Colleges. Thankfully the question was not asked in isolation, as it might have been in the past, but is part of the change of attitude there has been over the recent past to the question of the spiritual needs of students in governement and educational circles.

It was great to hear the QCA make reference to the work of the RE Council and especially the recommendations they have made concerning the need for provision for all 16 - 19 year olds. We had an update of the work ‘All Faith’s and None’ jointly funded by the Jerusalem Trust and the LSC and directed by Alan Murray and Andrew Wright. This is an exciting project aimed at supporting and resourcing spiritual and moral development of student of all faiths, those of no religious belief and those who are challenging their faith background. Still very much in the planning stage it was easy to see that this is a major piece of work that is incredibly complex but it was also a great opportunity for the participants in the conference to make some positive comments.

The conference also welcomed input from young students and they should be congratulated for their contribution. Christian and Muslim students prepared statements as to what was important to them in their faith. The detail and use of technology showed that this was not something they had put together at the last moment but had spent time preparing. Later they were ready to try and answer questions from the floor and did very well. Professor Denise Cush also brought the voice of young people to the conference in the presentation of her research into teenage Wicca and Paganism and its importance for engaging with young people and shaping provision for SMSCD.

It was fantastic to be able to roll out Breathe for the chaplains to see, experience and hear how it can be used in colleges. Once seen there is definately no need to persuade people to have a closer look and so it is no suprise that bookings have been made.

That’s the conclusion we came to in the light of research we undertook in 2005. We also discovered that a simple questionnaire can become a powerful tool to draw out comments such as the one below and to lead into deeper discussion.

‘To me being an agnostic means I am unsure about what I believe when it comes to religion. But I believe in something out there.’ ‘I do not really believe in god, but refuse to believe that once you die, that is that and its over.’

Our findings indicate that many student groups are more spiritual than they will readily acknowledge. Our research tool takes seriously the beliefs and values of individual students and the group as a whole and offers a wonderful opportunity for reflecting back this ‘spiritual snapshot’. You can test and challenge the students assumptions by inviting them to guess the percentage who are ‘atheist’, those who thought they were ‘spiritual but not religious’ and those who believe in ‘one true God’. Allow their curiosity to generate motivation for learning.

We’re interested in collecting a new student sample and if you would like to participate and send us your data we’ll be pleased to process your results and return a report to you electronically, from which it is straight forward to create a power point presentation to feedback to your student group.

You can download the survey from our publications section or alternatively, purchase ‘Spiritual Engagement’ and you will receive this on CD-Rom along with a wealth of other resources. You’ll also find details of our research findings there as well.

We’re interested in gathering a wide sample from 6th forms, Colleges and FE Students who are 16-19. We request that a whole cohort / year of students complete the questionnaire at the same time. However, if you are prepared to process your own data we are happy for you to use the questionnaire in a different way.

For further details of the D2E Research Project email us on mail@dare2engage.org

1. ‘Seventeen year-olds: more spiritual than religious, less atheistic than you may have thought’ Lat Blaylock and Peter Williams published in Resource 28:1 Autumn 2005 See also ‘Exploring the beliefs of 16-19-year olds, Part 2: Respect, spirituality, human rights, life after death.’ Resource 29:1 Autumn 2006

Thirteen-year-old Morgan Pozgar, of Claysburg, Pennsylvania, was crowned LG National Texting champion on Saturday after she typed “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins” in 15 seconds.

Morgan defeated nearly 200 other competitors at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan to become East Coast champion and then beat West Coast champion Eli Tirosh, 21, of Los Angeles, California.

She estimated that she sends more than 8,000 text messages a month to her friends and family.

I’m in awe of this kind of speed. Even as a technolody addict, I couldn’t get anywhere near this. It reminds me that one of the challenges we face is how we use technology in our work and ministry. We’ve been wondering this at LCET where we have always banned mobile phones from residentials - or at least tried - and are now thinking about what it would be like if we did the opposite and encouraged them to be brought…using them as part of how we communicate over the week or weekend.

When it comes to 16+ I wonder if there’s even more potential here. FE Campuses are ususally spread out and students are only there when they need to be. How could be use mobile phones in chaplaincy ministry - apart from the obvious of calling existing contacts?

So here’s my question. How could we creatively adopt this kind of technology into working in this area. Some churches have already begun to think this through. Check out this interesting piece on mobile theology from digital orthodoxy.