So how do you divide up your Sunday School groups?

[BetsyBoop]

At the moment we have two groups, which are supposed to be 0-5yos (which I run & a parent must stay with child) and 5+ (parents need not stay)

I say supposed to as we do get quite a few 5 & 6 yos in our group as they have younger siblings & want to be together (or parent can't be in two places as child (or their parent!) not happy to be alone at the 5+ group)

We are basically a victim of our own success and at our last session had 37 children + parents (We started with 20 at our first session just over a year ago, and the numbers just keep growing, which is fab!)

The room we have available felt comfortable up to about 30 + parents, now it is feeling like mayhem.

Our session is basically
opening song/prayers
story
craft activities
closing song/prayers (lasts about 50mins)

Coupled with this the leader of the older group would prefer it to be for 7+ so he can aim stuff at the older kids (they currently have about 20 in that group) I can see his point & the 5/6/7yos are generally more than happy in our group, it's just down to space/size of group that's the problem.

We don't have another room, so we can't split the groups down further.

I'm just hoping (and have been praying!) for some inspiration, as I can't see a workable way forward at the moment. Any suggestions/ideas/experiences would be very welcome.

Thank You :)

Hi BetsyBoop

Sounds like you have similar numbers to my church.

Ours is split slightly differently:

The whole church family starts the service together, after about 15 mins the children go off to their groups:

0-3s are left to wander the church! There are a couple of mats, some toys, play house etc to the side of the pews, the parents plus a volunteer may sit and keep an eye on them.

4-10s break out to the room at the back of the church. Parents don't accompany apart from the first one/two weeks whilst they settle in. There are three people helping on a rota with this group.

The 10+ go to the vicarage next door.

Your current session sounds a bit like our 'Tots Praise' which takes place on a Monday morning - maybe that is an option for you and keep Sunday school for the 4+.

It sounds as if you now need 3 groups.

I would suggest creche 0-3 years with a parent staying if required.

then a group for 4 - 7 years (end of KS1)

then a group for KS2 children 7-11 years.

Our church also has a group for 11+ (secondary school age).

Most churches I have been involved with have not expected parents to stay once children are at school. What you could try is having a parents rota so that the parents take it in turns to stay and help!

I don't run a Sunday school, so I hope this suggestion is not totally out of order.

Do the children tend to go to the same primary school? Because if so, might it be possible to split by school year? The children would then be in familiar year groups, rather than some being "up" with people they know less well - also the younger ones of the older group might be better able to do without their parent if they're with their friends. You could split at either end yr1 or yr2 depending on your numbers.

Thanks for yoru suggestions everyone

I see that quite a few are agreeing that a split at the end of KS1 is better, I just need to ponder some more how to manage the numbers.

We don't have another room to use, so unfortunately we can't split the under 3s/4s off elsewhere.

I would love to restrict to 4+, but then we would lose quite a few families as there are a lot that come with 5 & 3 yo siblings (myself included!)

The suitation is not made any easier by the fact that the church hall is the opposite side of a fairly busy road to the Church, so we do need make sure we have sufficient adults to get all the kids safely across to Church (start in the hall & join the service before communion) and we are struggling for volunteers at the moment, which is one of the main reasons parents must stay (we can't meet the recommended ratio of kids:adults with just volunteers) We put out a number of appeals for parents to help out, and got one extra volunteer...