Christmas in Farnham

Signposts

Schools Work

Signposts is an inter-church project seeking to work in partnership between the schools and churches of Farnham. Delivering stimulating and engaging lessons and assemblies within Farnham and the surrounding areas to infant, junior and primary schools.

The Schools Work Steering Group overseas Signposts working with schools in Farnham, it's members come from a variety of churches throughout Farnham and include clergy, church-based professional children and youth workers and educational advisers from local primary and secondary schools.

Signposts deliver assembly ‘tours’ to currently 17 infant, junior and primary schools in and around Farnham at Christmas and Easter.

Our Christmas & Easter Tours follow a 4 year rotation with the following Christmas topics: The Unexpected Present, A Royal Visitor, Peace at Last & Joy - The Christmas Story; and Easter topics: A Surprising Swap, Mystery of the Empty Tomb, It’s a King Thing & Hope - The Easter Story.

Testimonials

What those we connect with have to say...

An excellent presentation which felt really slick. LOTS of ‘actors’ and the message was very well pitched to our youngest children.
Great idea of a mystery to solve, good short activities for the children, great behaviour management and a good review of learning and key ideas.
A really novel and interesting way to deliver a very familiar story to the older children. The pupils enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. The interaction between the team and the pupils was very good.
The song was as terrific as ever and got everyone involved! We appreciated the quality and thinking behind the worksheets to take away.
The props and puppets made it very professional and helped the children get involved. Loved the wriggle breaks and interaction – an excellent performance with a clear and inclusive message!
I don't know how you always come up with such original ideas but please don't stop doing what you’re doing!
We all thought it was absolutely BRILLIANT!!! The children were captivated. I couldn't stop laughing.
How do you and your team manage to create these amazing performances every time whether on screen or in school!!
Great catchy song as always. You all have such a skill to bring God’s word into the children’s world.
What a great video to learn more about hope. The concept of doing it through FaceTime videos was something the children could relate to at this time.
There was lots of laughter when listening to Chris Hope’s (thats H O P E) gardening tips and dancing to the song at the end.
Very engaging, bright colourful set and props, good mix of audience participation and movement and clear storytelling.

Timeline & Overview

A brief history of the project and it's impact...

2023

We welcomed a new Signposts coordinator, Jo Scougall, to lead the Signposts primary schools work in 2023. Signposts produced an Easter tour,  a summer ‘moving on’ tour and a Christmas tour.  A team of volunteers deliver these  assemblies at 15 primary schools in the Farnham area. Funding has been received for work with Young People of secondary school age. Due to changes in leadership of a partner organisation, there has been a delay in starting this work.

2022

We welcomed a new Signposts coordinator, Becky Porter, in January 2022 to lead the Signposts primary schools work. As schools started to open up following the pandemic, Signposts produced an Easter tour video and worked with some schools for a summer transition tour and more for the Christmas tour.  Still no project lead has been found to head up the Cohesion into secondary schools work and a new project is being considered in 2023. 

2021

As schools started to open up following the pandemic, Signposts produced an Easter tour video and worked with some schools for a summer transition tour.  The Signposts coordinator stepped down in the August and a new member of staff was recruited from the local churches to lead the Signposts primary schools work.  Still no project lead has been found to head up the Cohesion into secondary schools work and is being reconsidered as an active project.

2020

Due to the pandemic, the Signposts Coordinator role was furloughed in April after being unable to enter schools for the scheduled Easter tour shortly before the national lockdown. However, several requests were made to produce something to support the Year 6 children transitioning to secondary school. The role was therefore un-furloughed for 3 weeks in June/July to respond to this request and along with a team of 12 children’s and youth workers from 8 different local churches, it was decided to adapt and record the usual transition tour material and make it available to schools. 

For the usual Christmas tour, with the knowledge that visits to schools in person would again not be possible, the Signposts Core team decided to produce a video that could be distributed digitally and could be shown in class or year group bubbles. Keeping the previous working values of the gospel story delivered in an interesting, fun and interactive way, a video was produced for both key stages.

These videos were well received and can be viewed here:

Christmas

Easter

Transition

2019

An action packed year, seeing lots of change at Farnham Schools Work. Two key team members of the project moved out of the area which presented challenges for the team, but also gave opportunities for new people to get involved from other churches in the town. 

The Signposts Christmas Tour saw 15 schools take part in 32 hour long assemblies. The Signposts Easter Tour delivered 36 assemblies to 15 schools this year, this meant that 3,784 children and approximately 216 adults saw the tour!  The team consisted of 24 people from 9 churches.  Feedback is always very positive and mostly given verbally to the team. Schools are very grateful to us for covering a topic that they find tricky and nearly all of them comment on how much they and the children look forward to and enjoy our visits. Signposts also supported prayer spaces at William Cobbett run by Weybourne Community Church along with parents and volunteers from several churches, 19 sessions were delivered with 500 children going through, and a training event with Guildford Diocese on how to deliver Year 6 Transition activities. Finally an excellent Annual Review Meeting was held attended by many of the church leaders in the town.

2018

This year the Signposts assemblies were again delivered in sessions of 45-60 minutes to around 100 children at a time. The team is currently engaged with 17 schools. With the Christmas tour reaching over 4,000. The current team comprises 25 adults, from 10 churches, and includes both seconded church workers and volunteers.

2017

Signposts assemblies were delivered in sessions of 45-60 mins to around 100 children at a time. Each tour has added new schools to the programme and the team are currently engaged with 17 schools. The last tour reached over 3,500 children. The current team comprises 25 adults, from 10 churches, and includes both seconded church workers and volunteers.

2016

Signposts reached approximately 3,500 children in 14 primary schools. The assemblies were delivered in sessions of 45-60 mins to around 100 children at a time, in an exciting, engaging and highly interactive way. They were staffed by seconded workers and volunteer children’s workers from 10 churches and each assembly required 6-10 adults to deliver. The team were outstanding in the time, energy and positive attitude that they brought to the project. Signposts also drew churches and Christian children’s workers together across the town and continued to build good relationships with both school headteachers and R.E. co-ordinators.

Staging Site