'Let no one disregard you because you are young...' 1 Timothy 4:12

Schools

Mrs Heather Housden, a Schools Inspector, former head teacher and one of our Christian Listener tutors in the South of England, has developed a version of our Acorn listening courses 'Learning to Listen' - a course for young people. The aims of this course are to raise the awareness of the power of listening in schools and to equip older teenagers with some of the skills needed to listen to younger teenagers. To date some 40 courses have been successfully run in schools and youth clubs across the UK.

It is well known that youngsters will be more open and frank with their contemporaries than with adults, however approachable adults may be. With this in mind, many schools run informal schemes, such as Buddy Support and Trust and Tell, or formal schemes such as Circle Time.

The Acorn Training course can provide the basic training of pupils for such schemes, or effectively augment schools' training and mentoring programmes. It could form part of the School's Personal Health and Social Education programmes, and in particular to support Buddy systems.

The course runs for six weeks, each session running for approximately two hours. Three essential elements run throughout - listening to ourselves, listening to others and listening to God. Two of the six sessions focus on bullying in different forms.

Although the course has an essentially Christian focus, less specifically Christian meditations are available in instances where young people come from families of other world faiths. The course has been successfully piloted at Chigwell School where a significant number of students are Muslim.

The course is designed to be tutored by experienced and trained Acorn Christian Listeners and teachers. The ideal number of participants is twelve. A certificate is available on completion of the course. In the long term it is hoped that young people would not only use the skills learnt in everyday life, but also contribute significantly to individual school's student support network and mentoring programmes. Sensitive areas such as confidentiality and when to refer disclosures are discussed.

The needs of young people today are as important as they have ever been and perhaps more. They face so many pressures coming at them from different directions, in a world that is constantly changing. Increasingly, they long for an ear that will listen, - not judge or dictate, but just listen. Often as adults we are at a loss as to how to listen to their pain and insecurities. At Acorn, this is an area we wish to address, by offering a variety of training on Listening to young people.

This is what one sixth former said he had learnt from the material. Being listened to helped me understand other people's problems, and to see things in a different light. About himself, he wrote: 'I am perhaps too keen to tell others what I think or what to do in their situation, or how they ought to feel, when in fact listening to what they say is the most important.' About others he wrote, 'Your listening skills should be applied differently to different types of people'.

Courses on Listening can be adapted to suit your requirements. If you are a parent, youth leader, or teacher, htere is a course to suit you. To discuss the possibilities of how we can be of help to you in your situation, please contact:

Mrs Heather Housden,
19 Westbury Road,
Buckhurst Hill,
essex IG9 5NW.
Tel 0208 505 6261.
Email: Heather Housden