Sunday Groups for Children
St Andrew’s Sunday Groups for Children
Our Sunday groups are designed to be as different as possible from school. We meet together at the beginning of each session, sing together for a few minutes, celebrate any birthdays and share news, before breaking into smaller groups.
Parents are always welcome at any time. Some Mums find it best to come with their children for the first few weeks, to settle them into the routine.
What are they learning?
Our overall aim is for each child to learn to know and love the Lord Jesus. We read a story from the Bible each week, and with a combination of activities and direct instruction, we teach the traditional Christian faith. 
Our Sunday groups use Scripture Union materials. We take the names of our groups from the teaching syllabus that we follow.
Bubbles is for fives and under. Splash is for fives to eights.
Xstream is for eights to elevens.
The GRID is for elevens to fourteens - although most of the children in age range are involved in helping to teach younger ones, they learn more themselves and have more fun that way.. The children like the different names for their groups. From time to time they will bring home craft activities that they have maee during the sessions. If you would like to learn more about the materials that we are using, please ask.
Who can attend these Sunday Groups?
We welcome children with one or other parent, or another adult, who will bring them to the service and take responsibility for them while they are with us.
What happens at the end of the session?
We will return the children to you at the end of the service, bringing them to the small room at the back of the church building (which we call the choir vestry). We will give them a drink and a biscuit, and we invite you to take responsibility for them from that point onwards.
Children in the churchyard
We are very happy for children to use the churchyard as a playground after our services, although we encourage them not to attack each other with sticks! We cannot provide ‘playground cover’ while the children are outside, we regard them as being in the care of their parents.
Children inside the church building
We discourage children from running anywhere within the building, because of the danger of scalding from hot coffee, and because of the risk of injury to the elderly. We are not too keen on children using the Commuion Table as a climbing frame, otherwise we try to have as few ‘rules’ as possible.
What about CRB checks?
All helpers and leaders for our Sunday Groups are CRB checked as they join the team.
Do ask if there’s anything more that you would like to know!