Christ Church Douglas-in-Parbold

Annual Report April 2007 to April 2008

Douglas Old School Trustees - Derek Ashcroft & Frances McGucken

Prison Fellowship - Barbara Long

The Website - Michele Holliday

Day School Governors - Brian McGucken

Douglas Old School Trustees: Frances McGucken/ Derek Ashcroft

The Trust has continued to administer the building which houses the Parbold Nursery School. The rent is paid into our account by Standing order each month.

The Church pays a contribution to the Nursery for the use of the building for the children's Sunday morning activities.

The income of the Trust is used from time to time to support our own young people in learning related activities and in the purchase of learning related equipment. The Trust also pays the sum of £6000 annually to the Governors' account, of Parbold Douglas C of E school.

The statement of accounts is enclosed. For this we thank Jill Bithell who is acting as treasurer.

Prison fellowship: Barbara Long

The number of people taking the Prison Fellowship pray news letter over the past year has decreased. Although some of the spare prayer news letters are being taken by church members. If anyone wishes to take this news letter on a regular basis then please let me know.

This news letter is sent out monthly from the Prison Fellowship in Manchester at no cost to ourselves.

The Website (http://www.christchurchparbold.co.uk): Michele Holliday

I continue to maintain the web site and in general manage to change the Events and Service Pages each week, insert new Newsletter Pages each month, and make changes to the Home Page photograph and the behind the door Celebration Pages and Photograph Albums fairly regularly.

I find working on the web site enjoyable but am very pleased that Sue Murrin-Bailey has volunteered to assist me. This help will mean that I no longer have to worry about the web site getting out of date when I go on holiday or am tied up with other commitments. Sue and I have not yet had chance to get together so that I can show her what needs to be done but we hope to do so soon.

I was very grateful for Marc Hickling's input in creating the Youth Pages. Now that he is no longer able to maintain them, we need to try and encourage a new member of the Youth Group to take over. In the meantime, I am hoping to get some help and suggestions from J08 during the next Sunday School sessions, so that we can freshen the pages and make them attractive to other young people outside the church.

Finally, much as I enjoy working on the web site, I continue to hope for more input from the whole church. In particular I think it would be useful if a creative team could be gathered together to consider ways of improving the layout and content of the site. Those involved wouldn't need to know how to work a computer or how to use web building software. All that is required are ideas from time to time about the spiritual content of the site and the wording to go on pages. The more people that take part and the more the web site really will be OUR CHURCH web site.

Day School Governors: Brain McGucken

The past year has seen major change in the school with the retirement of Mr Fred Ladd, Headteacher for some 29 years. In recent years Mr Ladd has suffered from ill-health and the planned retirement event had to be cancelled because of this but a presentation was made on the last day of the summer term in recognition of his leadership and service.

The new Head Mr Paul Smith took up post in September, has settled in well and is beginning to put his own stamp on the school with several fresh initiatives.

On the academic front there were excellent results in the Key Stage 2 (Y6) SATs, placing us near the top in the county.

With the current interest in promoting healthy eating for children it is pleasing to report that our school cook has reached the finals of the "School cook of the year" competition.

With the retirement of our vicar it was felt important to continue the Thursday morning whole school assembly which he had conducted, and this has been shared between Mike Graham and myself.
The governing body continues to work well and would wish to express thanks to the Old School Trust for continued financial support.

I believe one of Brian Harding's lasting legacies is the strong relationship which he patiently built between our church and school. Please pray that this will continue to grow, thereby giving many children in the village the opportunity of a firm spiritual foundation for their lives.