Our Junior Church
Junior Church is all the younger people in our church community.
We are:
Crèche: the youngest people in our church family, from babes in arms up to around aged three.
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Primary: church family members aged from around 3 to about 6 or 7 years old.
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Juniors: members of the congregation aged from around 6 or 7 to about 11 years old.
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Seniors: older children in the congregation aged over 11.
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Fusion: that's what we call it when we all get together. We mostly do that on Sundays in the school holidays.
We generally use material from the Scripture Union curriculum. This means that the different groups will sometimes be looking at the same story or piece of scripture but from different points of view depending on their age. Unlike Juniors who are terrific at that kind of thing, the Seniors think colouring and sticking things is very uncool but like to have a good chat; Primary love a good sing, especially if there are some actions. You get the idea.
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Recently Junior Church has made up a few activity bags with a few toys and things suitable for small children. If you have a small child who is staying with you in the service, then as an alternative to sitting in the crèche area please ask whoever greets you at the door for one of the bags.
The crèche area is in church near the door that leads from church to all the rest of the facilities. There are mats on the floor and an assortment of toys and games. We do ask that parents and carers stay with small children in the crèche, but there are chairs all around it and a screen to relay whatever may be on the big screen behind the preacher. You can see the preacher from there, but not the screen behind them.
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If you find you need to take a little one out of church because they are upset, any one of the Junior Church leaders will be able to guide you to a quiet room, or you are always welcome to join the Primary Group.
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The crèche is always available on Sunday mornings, including when there is a family service and Junior Church is not running.
The other groups generally start off together and join the service near the end. So when you get to church make your way to your group before the service starts.
When there's a family service (have a look on the Services page for those) Junior Church doesn't run and many of the children sit with their families during the service, although some do like to congregate together in the front few rows or in the chairs around crèche. Don't go to your group when it's a family service - it's a bit lonely in the hall!
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We do our own thing whilst the service gets underway for everyone else. For example, if the groups are all in sync (which has been known!) Primary could be colouring a picture and singing a song about a Bible story; Juniors might be finding that story in their Bibles and acting it out or playing a game about it; and Seniors could be thinking about how the issues in that story apply in our own lives (and sometimes demolishing truly heroic quantities of biscuits).
Then we pile into the service together around 11.20. We try to be unobtrusive. Honestly, we really do. But it's safe to say that you'll probably notice us turning up! At that stage the preacher may make a brave effort to persuade some of the children to tell the congregation what we've been up to...
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If you're visiting us or you haven't been to Junior Church before, do come and join us in Junior Church - it's very casual (nothing like school!) Whatever we're doing each week will be self-contained, so you won't feel weird and out of place if you haven't been before.
The person who greets you at the door will be able to introduce you to one of the Junior Church leaders and they will be happy to show you around, point you to which rooms the groups usually use and so on.
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If you need to speak to someone beforehand - about any special needs or allergies for instance - or if you have any questions about Junior Church, please contact the office. We'll put you in touch with someone who can help you.
You can follow this link to find out about our Safeguarding Policy