in-form

spring 2015

CICS News
Comings and goings at CICS
Changes in the Chair
Goodbye to Daphne
In 2000 Daphne and Graham Cansdale
retired and came to live in Mytholmroyd. Prior to retirement, Daphne had
been fully involved with the Bedford
Trust a scheme similar to CICS working
in schools. On arrival in Calderdale
Daphne sought out CICS which back
then was just in its developmental
stage. In 2002 she took over as Chair
from Terry Hepworth and has been in
post until earlier this year. Daphne has
had a knowledge and experience of
schools work to bring to the trust and
has been a great ambassador for CICS
as a speaker and networker. We are
delighted that although Daphne has
stepped down as Chair, she is still a
Trust member.
Welcome Paul!
In our last edition of Inform
we welcomed Paul Blakey MBE as a
trustee. Now we are very pleased to
report, Paul has become our Chair.
We are very blessed to have his expertise, knowledge and vision at the CICS
helm. Thank you Paul as the saying
goes- ask a busy person.....!
Registered Charity1097660
3 Broadley Grove, Halifax, HX2 0RN
Chair: Paul Blakey 07725501465

We also welcome a new trustee

Carol Pearson has joined us and taken
on the valuable role of Primary school
link trustee.

CICS and a
Big Yellow Bus

Trinity Academy, Holmfirth Halifax is

on a hilly site. Part of the outdoor sport
area is on one of the highest spots on
the site, so the when the Big Yellow Bus
was parked there recently it would have
been hard to miss it!

Carol has taken early retirement from

teaching so has become a valuable
member of our trust.
She is no stranger to CICS as she is
Mum to Esther who was our second
worker before the birth of her family,
and Sam who, while he was at school,
was a volunteer with the CICS team.
The CICS website has been updated
please have a look. You will find lots
of interesting info as well as our new
publicity pack to download.
Thanks to Tony, Mark and John who
cycled coast to coast to raise 1,400 for
CICS and to ALL our faithful supporters,
volunteers and people who pray
We couldnt do without you!

The Bus is a fantastic resource a

double decker equipped with 4 TV
screens for DVDs and using games
consoles, internet access and
refreshment making equipment.
Sharon Lawrance the projects lead
community worker travels with the bus
The purpose of its visit to Trinity was
to re-launch CICS After School Club,
Ignite. Invitations had been issued in
school and the students responded!
Around 40 came to have a look and a
good number stayed for toast (in great
quantities!) tea, hot chocolate, to play
games and chat.

In this Local Church Links

issue....
CICS and a Big Yellow Bus
Lets Open the Book
How you can help?
The students were ready to chat in
this out of school environment and
some just seemed happy to sit and
relax after the day, before going
home to homework.
This was planned as an informal
session but the atmosphere on the
bus has great potential to be a place
of deeper discussion.
As I left Tony & Marcus Bull (the
Academy Chaplain) were planning
to make the bus visit happen more
frequently. Marcus said that the
benefits were well worth the time
spent in making arrangements for
the bus to come.
A student on boarding the bus
Wow this is cool!
The good news is Busoasis and all it
has to offer is available for a school
or church near you
Tonys Mobile 07879 675368
www.cicscalderdale.org.uk
tonybuck@cicscalderdale.org.uk

Lets Open the Book!

Could you help to deliver Open the Book

to a school near you?........
or volunteer alongside Tony with a
lunch club?..........
encourage a school to use The Yellow
Bus?..........
or do you have a way with finance or
fundraising? We could so use you!
And...
Please continue to pray for all aspects
of our work and make your local school
a Prayed for School

Luddenden CE school has around

200 pupils between foundation stage
(nursery and reception) to year 6 (11
year olds)
The schools head, Lisa Hoyle, told me
that when she was appointed the school
was then in special measures. Her
focus had to be on teaching and learning to improve standards. However she
was also aware that, especially as they
are a CE school, she wanted the daily
collective act of worship to be a meaningful experience for pupils and staff.
She said that Ruth, her team and the
Open the Book material have provided
just what was needed.
All the Open the Book material, which
is produced by the Bible Society, is
Ofsted approved. The scheme provides
a whole assembly package which,
although it has a Bible story at its heart,
is suitable for all faiths and none.
I met Ruth and her team at Luddenden
CE school, when they came to take
assembly. Alison who is a retired
teacher, John also retired, who said he
hadnt been in a school since he left
at 18, and Ruths husband Chris. They
had brought with them camel masks,
scarves for headdresses and a coat of
many colours to begin to unfold the
Joseph story.
The children came into the hall- all
ages from reception up. Volunteers to
be camels, merchants and brothers
were found and with Alison as narrator
the story began. John was very convincing as Joseph and Chris encouraged
the brothers to play their part in putting
Joseph in the pit and selling him to the
merchants. There were genuine gasps
of disappointed Oh when we were told
we would have to leave Joseph in prison

in Egypt until next week!

The theme of caring sharing and not
being jealous was introduced and
children went off to playtime. The
theme introduced this morning will be
carried on through the weeks
assemblies. Alison John, Ruth and
Chris meet at 9am on Monday (the day
of the assembly) to plan. School for
10am then back to Ruths for coffee.
They then look at the story for next
week, make sure they have all the props
needed etc. and home for lunch time.
John & Alison agreed
Open the Book is fulfilling and fun!
A great start to the week!
Gets us going on a Monday morning
John said
Before Open the Book I would have
said this is way out of my comfort zone,
as I have had no previous experience of
acting!!
The school has recently had a Statutory
Anglican & Methodist Schools
inspection which said

Children really enjoy the way Open the

Book sets the scene for worship in the
coming week. They engage wholeheartedly with the drama and sing
animatedly. Consequently they
remember Bible stories well and take a
message away with them.
Most importantly the children say:I really like it it makes Bible stories
come alive
Its a great way to start Mondays better than lessons!
So........................
exciting things are happening in
primary and secondary schools
But........................
there are still more schools in Calderdale to whom we could offer so much
things like the initiatives you have read
about here- and- assemblies, lunch
clubs and lessons, help with delivery of
the RE syllabus, above all being
ambassadors for the Christian Faith.

We need your help

Do you have regular times of prayer

at your church? Please include your
local school in your prayers or set up
a group to specifically do so. If you do
have a time when you regularly Pray for
Schools please let us know so we can
have an accurate record of prayed for
schools in Calderdale.
Can you help to make it happen?
We are asking for your help
in prayer action - giving
We have just launched new publicity
material for schools. Copies are being
sent to churches and this booklet is
also available to down load from our
up-dated website. We want to be able
to give this booklet to schools knowing
that if they will welcome CICS into their
school, we can say YES
Please pray for schools & workers
for the harvest
volunteers are needed (see articles
in this issue)
and we need to make sure we can
pay the CICS staff we have now,
before we can expand with more
paid staff.
If you can help or would like to explore
one of the ways of being involved please
contact us on the numbers overleaf.