1. Provide a safe, happy and challenging environment in which boys and girls, and young people are encouraged and supported to discover their own personal faith, through a developing knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and His relevance in their own lives, at the same time understanding that to seek answers to questions is part of a long journey of faith.

There are so many demands on young people’s time today: school and club sports matches and training frequently take place on Sunday morning; homework and coursework for GCSEs and A Levels is often hugely demanding.  Children and young people today live a different kind of life than their parents and grandparents. 

So how do we at Trinity deal with these demands on their lives which may keep them away from church on a Sunday? How do we help them develop and maintain their growing faith and relationship with God? 

On this page you will find information about activities for children and young people on Sunday and during the week, plus the kind of events we organize on a regular basis throughout the year.
 

Even the very youngest members and visitors to Trinity are provided for. A caring team of experienced volunteers looks after our babies and toddlers in a well-equipped Crèche.

Junior Church is held every Sunday morning in the Mansel Road Centre and runs concurrently with the Sunday morning service. Children and young people worship in church with their families and the rest of the congregation during the first 15 minutes and then leave for their own activities. We have over 70 Junior Church members and are always pleased to welcome new children to our Sunday morning sessions.

We hold an opening worship session which includes prayer, singing, a time to celebrate any birthdays, share any significant news or events in the children’s lives and a short talk and discussion about the weekly teaching theme which is taken from the ‘Seasons of the Spirit’ scheme .  All the teachers use these high quality resources, which are also used by the Minister so that there is a link between the worship which takes place in the main service and Junior Church. These resources provide lively and thought provoking material which is both relevant and suitable for each group. Our teaching material is strongly Bible-based, so all our children will, by the time they ‘leave’ Junior Church, have a good knowledge of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.

The children are arranged into different groups according to age with suitable activities organized for them. 

Activities in the Sparklers  are specially designed to cater for 'Foundation stage' children. Singing and dancing accompanied by musical instruments are particularly enjoyed by this age group. 

The children in this group are starting to explore Bible stories and ideas in more depth and regularly produce fantastic pieces of work associated with their learning – which then grace our notice-boards

This group particularly enjoy drama as a way to explore the Bible and its themes.

These two groups start to study the Bible in more depth and start to try and relate its messages to their own life and experiences.  

The YPs is a lively group of 13- 16 year olds who meet for debate and devotion each Sunday morning. Sometimes we look at the Bible directly, or debate wider issues and play games. We are constantly impressed by how willing the young people are to engage with difficult ideas, and how extremely good they are at supporting each other in their Christian lives.
 

Our children and young people are encouraged to respond to the needs of others in a range of ways: each week children are invited to contribute to a collection, the proceeds of which are donated to a charity chosen by the children and staff.

The YPs help run the Traidcraft Stall every Sunday.   At our Harvest Family Service in recent years we have raised money for WaterAid and during our Christmas Nativity service, children donate a gift of socks, gloves, hats or toiletries to support the work of Faith in Action, a Merton homeless charity. Also at Christmas, our children entertain the residents of Alexander House with carol singing.

We also hold an annual Lent Appeal, when children collect small change in a cup or a jam jar and the proceeds from this Appeal have in the past two years allowed us to support for children in the developing world.

Not many of our children attend the same schools so we make sure we have plenty of social activities throughout the year when they can meet up.  These include Christmas parties, group outings and social events with the whole church e.g. Family Quiz night.  A highlight of the year for all children of all ages is an outing to Godstone Farm in Surrey with a huge picnic lunch and a rounders match.

Four times in the year all children work together to lead a Family Service. They either read, act or sing and sometimes all three! Such opportunities to perform are a great boost to self-esteem. 

We also run three clubs to enable our children and young people meet outside of a Sunday morning:

SATURDAY CLUB – ages 6-11

This club for the younger children in the church meets on the first and third Saturday of each month from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm. This is a time for Junior Church children and their friends to meet socially to play games and have fun. Refreshments are provided