Church toddler group proves hit after first session

A new toddler group at St John the Baptist, Colerne, is already proving a success after its first session.

This month the church launched Sparkles, aimed at children under five, and has already seen 26 children come along.

The plan was to run the group once a month until the summer to determine whether there was a demand for it.

Tessa Armstrong, who runs the group, said she was surprised by how many had turned up to the first session.

She said: The church used to run a much smaller group for under-fives which needed a revamp.

I somehow got involved and have been working on this since the beginning of the year.

There are around 200 children aged five and under in Colerne and there has been a massive gap in the church in providing for that demographic.

We ran our first session on 4 May and had 26 children. I had in mind that I would be pleased with 20 children so I was a little surprised. We now need to be a bit more creative with the space to fit everyone in which is a nice problem to have!

Tessa said she had taken part in training led by Dan Jones, the diocesan Youth and Childrens Adviser, as well as making use of the How to… guides.

She added: There were so many How to… guides from the Diocese so we just had to follow those. It was very helpful to us.

You can find 'How to...' guides to download here.

You can read the booklet: 'It's just the toddler group: toddler groups and mission' here.

First published 22nd May 2017
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