Tim Blake
Zoe Shuler
Sarah Davie
St Andrew's Histon Under Fives | Shine
Friendship, Faith and Fun
Our vision for young families with under 5’s
We aim to be a place of welcome, hospitality and sanctuary; to provide a little piece of shelter from the storms of everyday life; to be a listening ear, and a chance to explore the hope, love, peace and transformation that the Christian faith brings.
We have a little announcement to make about changes after February half term (20 Feb):
We are pleased to announce that we are continuing with our Under 5s vision after half term: We know that all three groups have brought much joy, friendship and fun and hope that will continue.
‘Little Stars’ for babies and early movers will remain on Tuesdays at 10.30am and we will invite the Shooting Stars group to join in with Shine on Fridays from 10.50am where we will provide activities appropriate across the ages, including soft play, imaginative play, sensory play, a craft, a bible or other story and singing time, for all under fives and their families.
Booking will continue to be through the St Andrew’s Church website/Church Suite. Their will continue to be 20 spaces available at Little Stars. For Shine, we will increase the number of spaces to 28 as we invite those from Shooting Stars to join us and will be using both halls. There will be a few practical changes which will be added to the information you see on the booking page and on the Church website pages under http://standrewshiston.org/kids/ so please read those carefully.
We look forward to many more great times together,
Tim, Rachel and all the team from the St Andrew's Church community.
This is the Shine page, for Little Stars click here.
Shine | A place for Under Fives and their carers | Friday mornings from 11am
A chance to meet with other parents to find support from one another and our team. We are looking forward to welcoming you with tea, coffee and cakes. We'll be singing, playing, telling stories, making things and chatting to each other about day to day life as new parents and about the bigger things when you want to.
Shine is open to anyone and costs £2 per family
Shine is based upon Friendship, Faith and Fun. We aim to be a place of welcome, hospitality and sanctuary; to provide a little piece of shelter from the storms of everyday life; to be a listening ear, and a chance to explore the hope, love, peace and life that the Christian faith brings.
Shine is open to everyone and costs £2 per family, per session (payable on arrival).
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION:
- Please bring your own drinks for your little ones. Please bring your own lidded cup for a hot drink. We will serve cake to adults and biscuits to the children.
- If you or your child has coronavirus symptoms or has tested positive, please don’t attend. The latest symptons can be found here: The latest symptoms can be found here: https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/new-top-5-covid-symptoms and here: gov.uk
- Please adhere to all the protocols we have put in place to keep us all safe during the event
Our waitlist and booking protocol
We are so chuffed that so many people have been coming to Shine and we are ofen well oversubscribed. It's a great problem to have but one that is hard to manage! So here is how we are making it work fairly:
- Booking will now be through Church Suite. Follow the link to our Church Diary where you can choose the event you would like to book: http://standrewshiston.org/diary/
- Please note that Tickets are released 7 days in advance
- If there are no Family Tickets available, choose a Waitlist Family ticket.
- If you cannot use your place it is really important to cancel it so that we can re-allocate your space. You can do this right up to 11am on the day by emailing underfives@standrewshiston.org
- We will then contact the next person on the waitlist to offer a space.
- On the morning, we will use the waitlist order to allocate any spaces not taken.
We hope that all makes sense. See you soon! Tim, Zoe and Sarah
Why Join us for our singing and story time?
During Shine, amongst the play, chat, coffee and cakes we include a wonderful time of singing and stories. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you the reasons we include these as part of our group.
There are so many reasons to support your child to join in with singing times. Most babies and children love music and singing (and remember - your child loves the sound of your voice, even if you are worried you can't sing!). Singing slows language down and provides rhyme and repetition, allowing your child to start developing their awareness of relationships between letters and sounds. Action rhymes develop motor skills and co-ordination, while counting songs develop early learning skills. But not only this… for children, singing is fun, inclusive, helps build confidence and most of all is known to boost happiness (and yours as well)!
By encouraging your child to join in with our story time you are giving them the opportunity to hear new language and vocabulary. You are helping them to develop listening and attention skills, and feeding their wonderful imaginations and natural curiosity about the world. Babies and young children are sponges that soak in practically everything in their environments. Even during story time, their minds are at work, taking in all the language they hear and lessons the characters learn.
So, we would love you to help us to support your children and encourage you to help your child take part in this fun, social but also valuable time in our group.
We look forward to singing with you soon!
The Shine Team ☺