Getting the Vision Straight
It’s easy for a Teach Feast group to become a group where there is relief from the teaching world without the influence we hope to have in it. If you want to see your course and schools transformed by the gospel, it is important to keep your group focussed on the three-fold aim of supporting, equipping, and mobilising one another for a gospel-centred teaching life.
Let this vision shape the way you plan your Teach Feasts and remember to communicate it regularly to the group:
Supported through the challenges of studying to be a teacher.
As a minimum, every hub has a role as a field hospital – a safe-haven for those whose faith or life is being challenged by teacher training. Your group can serve as a place of rest and encouragement so that you can all keep going on what is often a challenging course.
Your hub should also be a place to pray for and practically support one another through difficult assignments, placements, and the ups and downs of student life.
Equipped to integrate teaching and pedagogy with gospel-centred faith.
Terach Feast groups are a place to be trained in how to think Christianly as teachers. We want everyone to grow in not only knowing the depth and breadth of life with God, but also what that means as our faith finds touchpoints in the ways we teach.
Mobilised to witness to the gospel schools and to their coursemates.
Your group is well-placed to talk about the specific contexts of the staffroom and classroom and how to evangelise in those spaces. Our hope is to invite trainees and teachers from a variety of backgrounds along to explore theology and the Christian faith.
You might look to witness together through an Open Teach Feast, to think and pray through what is possible to say in schools, or to organise to go to an event such as a carol service together with guests.
When and Where to Meet
Meet as regularly as you can. With simple food and an easy location, even busy placement-ers can most likely make it.
Lunchtimes are good if everyone is on campus but evenings may suite any ECT teachers you know too and will work for the whole year. Be sure to talk to the CU committee to avoid clashes with other regular CU meetings.
Try to meet somewhere central for everyone. You might even be able to ask a teacher you know from church to host. They wouldn’t necessarily have to cook, though they might be keen to!
Planning the Programme
There are Teach Feasts already written which take around 40 mins to get through. You can work through these in order or pick what seems most relevant to your group. Either way, you might want to begin with Teach Feast 1 as it takes the group through what Teach Feasts are all about.
Plan your time so you get chance to eat together and catch up as well (see our recipe suggestions if you’re wondering where to start on food). Make sure you leave enough space to discuss and pray for each other.
Try to have your first Teach Feast venue, date and time sorted by the beginning of term so you’re able to invite people confidently. If you can, plan 3 the dates for three Teach Feasts in advance and check with people on different courses or at different institutions if you’ve got a mixed group from the city. We’ve found that doing something around Week 3 of term, or of a block at uni or placement works quite well for both teachers and students.
Engage in Evangelism
Dedicate some of your programme to encouraging your network to engage in evangelism. You could invite the Teaching Network Co-ordinator or a Staff Worker to speak about reaching your course mates.
Plan to do something evangelistic together each term. This might be as simple as committing to inviting your course mates or those in your staff room to a Christmas event and having a meal together first. Your can be praying for each other as a group as you do this. Otherwise, you could run an Open Teach Feast and invite people who aren’t Christians yet to come and think through faith and teaching with you. (Check out the ‘Speak’ section of the website for more ideas and resources).
When are key CU events such as mission weeks? Keep these weeks free in your programme if you can and encourage your Teach Feast group to show up and support the CU mission by volunteering and/or bringing along their friends.
Connect with National Training
Make the most of central Teaching Network events. Why not encourage those in your group to book on to Word Alive through your CU and come as a group to the Teaching Network seminars.
Keep an eye out for other Teaching Network events that you could attend as a hub.
What to do in Welcome Week
It is a good idea to do something relaxed for your introductory session, based around food – like the rest will be! Perhaps a pizza evening or a coffee shop meet up. Invite everyone from the Education department (not just the Christian students) and spend most of the time just enjoying getting to know each other.
Include a presentation of what Teaching Network is, why it matters, and how they can benefit from being involved. You can either do the speaking yourself if you feel confident about it, or one of the Teaching Network staff would be delighted to come along and speak!
You may also want to include a taste of what a Teach Feast. Have a read of the Taster Teach Feast and see if you might like to use it or something similar.
Advertising Well
Make sure you invite teaching students and trainees from all years, and anyone already involved in your Teach Feast group to your introductory event. There might be other teachers around in local churches who have either recently trained or are on schools-based courses so consider getting a note out to local churches too.
Advertise through the CU. Get in touch with the CU committee or the CU Freshers team before the summer and get a Teach Feast event listed on the CU’s Freshers week publicity material. Consider going to CU welcome events (and pre-term events like freshers’ get-away or freshers’ Zoom call) and volunteer for the CU Freshers stall so that you can invite students personally!
Advertise through the Education department. Different universities will have different channels of communication that you may be able to advertise through. Ask the department about this and see if you can put an announcement in the department email, Facebook group, or whatever other communication there is. They may have a welcome pack for new Teaching students that you can get a flyer put into. You might even be able to give an announcement in a welcome seminar.
Other Things to Note
It is a good aim to have your first term’s dates and locations planned. New students will then feel they are fitting into something that has already got off the ground and is worth joining. If you’re not sure how to put this together check out the planning advice here.
You might also find some of UCCF's advice for welcoming new students to CUs helpful for thinking through how to welcome new students to your Local Teaching Network.