The Children and Schools Team
We work with churches across the Wirral, helping them to connect with their local communities and schools. We provide resources, training and support to churches for new and ongoing projects. Our primary goal is to see children, young people and their families respond to the gospel of God’s love in Christ and live out their discipleship in worship and mission.

Emma Sofayo
Children and Schools Team Leader
Emma is wife and mum, and has led the Children and Schools team for some years. She is passionate about helping churches reach out to families and local communities.

Jack Watson
Children and Schools Team and Circuit Safeguarding Officer
I have lots of passions as well as youth work. I love music and am a musician, performing with choirs and solos shows across Merseyside, I am an actor who works with a local theatre company performing in schools across Liverpool. Like Nick I am a massive geek who loves Star Trek and like Rachel I have a deep love for coffee and can normally be found with one in my hand. As well as being on the Youth Team, I am the Circuit Safeguarding Officer.

Rachel Gray
Children and Schools Worker
When I’m not in work or organising my children’s hectic social life, I like nothing more than to be baking or cooking and singing along to the radio. Due to my love of all things food related, I consider it my duty to visit as many local coffee shops and bakeries as possible, in the interests of Quality assurance. I also love reading (while drinking coffee) and watching films, which can vary from classics to science fiction and fantasy.
What we do
Lego Church
Lego Church is an exciting after school club, where we have loads of fun being creative with tons of Lego. Along side the Lego we have Bible stories, challenges, games and snacks. We currently have 4 churches running their own groups: West Kirby, Heswall, Neston and Little Neston, with the hope of more stating soon.
Church Mice
Church Mice is a group activity aimed at pre-school Children and their carers. It includes songs, Bible Stories and craft, and is usually followed by free play and refreshments. The Children’s Work Team offer support, including a three-year programme.
The Hope Journey
The Hope Journey is an exciting, interactive, and engaging way of partnering local churches and local schools in the delivery of certain areas of the national Religious Education syllabus. Through the multiple workshop format, pupils will engage with anything from three to six workshops, each incorporating a different learning style, thus allowing everybody to engage in some way with the session. The duration of each Hope Journey event is between one and two hours.
Since its creation, thousands of children from a variety of backgrounds have engaged with ‘The Hope Journey’ in a location close to them. We have Journeys available for children from Reception to Year 6. We have also adapted some of our Journeys for special schools and we are developing our Journeys for secondary schools to be rolled out over the next couple of years.
To date Hope Journey supports 40 different churches across the North West of England, Methodist and also ecumenical partners. The number of churches involved grows steadily. If you would like to be put in touch with a local church who run Hope Journey please do get in touch and have a conversation with us. During the pandemic, we adapted The Hope Journey workshops so they could be delivered online.
Youth work
The team supports some of the great work that goes on in the circuit. Each month we are at Bromborough Methodist Church working with young people between the age of 11-17 from Bromborough Methodist Church and St Mary’s Eastham with Late Night Lock In, a fantastic youth group that looks at the Bible in fun, interesting and unusual ways, such as through science and drama. There is also sometimes fire! If you would like to come, please do get in touch for more details.
We also currently support a group at St Luke’s in Hoylake called Time 4 Teens, a place to chill and chat but also look at some of the bigger problems of life and how we can face them together. This takes place every Wednesday between 5:00 and 7:00 pm. Get in touch with Time 4 Teens via the St Luke’s website to hear more.
Ecumenical and Connectional Work
The team love to share their faith outside of the Wirral Methodist Circuit with other churches and organisations. The team had the joy of delivering several workshops at the last gathering of 3Generate, the children’s and youth assembly of the Methodist Church, which aims to create an inclusive and diverse space for the prophetic voice of children and young people to emerge and be heard. We also recently worked with the Liverpool Parish Church (Our Lady and Saint Nicholas) leading a Remembrance Day service for over a thousand children.
Holiday Club
The team regularly help several churches with their summer holiday clubs with are always full of fun and hilarity, with stories, games, songs and more. They are well worth a visit. Watch out for more details.
Resources
We have a large variety of resources that are all available to use. Here are just a few of the things we have on offer: Puppets (including scripts and songs); Godly Play stories; Messy Church resources, craft ideas and materials including a badge maker; Children’s addresses for every week of the lectionary; School assemblies, Lego and lots more. Contact us and see what we can do to help you!