Dan

What we hope to bring

At Leeds Faith in Schools we hope to be a flexible and professional resource to the changing world of education.

This means that we strive for excellence in our work in the current educational climate and we operate with an ability to be adaptable in the future.

Where are we now? It is no lie that the landscape of education is changing, from academies and free schools to English Baccalaureate and funding cuts.  High Schools in Leeds are not immune to these changes. Parklands Girls Schools, now the E-Act Academy have become the most recent in a growing line of Leeds schools to assume academy status. 

Yet it is at the level of the young people I want to focus our attention.  Young people’s care is being threatened.  I heard a member of staff comment that “results are the core business of schools” they are driven by league tables leaving young people’s worth, value and quality of life cast by the wayside. 

Funding cuts mean that pastoral members of staff are not replaced when they leave, teachers focussed on results and Ofsted inspections have decreasingly less time to spend with their form group, even the time spent in forms has dropped therefore registration with a form tutor occurs only once in a day.  Add to this the increasing problems in society leads to a formula where young people are cared for less, listened to less and challenged less.

At Leeds Faith in Schools we hope to be a positive agents of change in these circumstances.  Six of our team regularly mentor young people, two of whom are dedicated fulltime mentors.  We hope to be good at loving young people, we hope to be a compassionate listening ear, we hope to challenge behaviour and we hope to be excellent role models for the young people we work with.

It can be very easy to think negatively about our society and the changes that are occurring however we are called to bring peace and wholeness of life to the city of Leeds, please pray for us that we’d do just that.

Dan