Children

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Junior Church

Junior Church usually meets every Sunday during school term time, and has three different age groups within it. The three groups meet separately in different parts of our building on Sunday mornings. The children gather with their parents, and leave shortly after the start of the service, for their own activities.

Later, before the end of the service, the children return to share with the adults what they have been doing. The service then concludes, and everyone enjoys refreshments together before going home.

Junior Church is a time of fun and fellowship for our younger church members, and visitors are always welcome to join in the fun. If you'd like to come along and see what happens, just turn up, or contact us in advance if you want to check the details.

Children from other churches who are temporarily in our area will be very welcome to come and join us whilst in Acton; we enjoy having visitors.

Sunday Creche

People of all ages are welcome in our church.  Young children are expected to make noise and to move around - that's what little ones do! We expect it at home, so we expect it at church as well.

An area to the side of our church, through an open archway, has been carpeted and made secure and comfortable for very young children. This creche area is available for parents and young children at all times during worship. If your child is distracted and needs to crawl around, or play, just move to the creche. You won't be far from everyone else, and you'll still be able to hear and see the service, and to join in.

The creche is equipped with soft toys, crayons, paper, and other equipment to help keep young children entertained. There is no need to worry - you can come and go from the creche at will. There are also baby-changing facilities in (a) the Narthex toilet, and (b) the church hall toilet block, plus (c) a mobile baby changing table available on request.

Baptism for your Child

Baptism (also known as Christening) is one of the sacraments of the Christian Church, and is the rite through which a person becomes a Christian, and starts their faith journey through life. Baptism is an important step. It allows a child to grow up with a faith tradition, and with the support of a faith community - both things are vital in terms of your child's spiritual growth and wellbeing. It is a child's first introduction to what Christians believe.

When adults are baptised they make a set of promises. Obviously small children cannot do this, so children are given Godparents who make the promises for them. Godparents commit themselves to caring for your children, and part of that care is to remind your children of their baptism as they grow. When children are older, they can recommit to their baptism promises with their own voices, by taking the related sacrament of Confirmation.

Baptism is administered on Sunday mornings, as part of our main Sunday worship. At St Gabriel's Church, our Sunday worship is almost always at 10.30am. If you would like to apply for your child to be baptised, please contact us, and we will arrange for you to meet with one of our priests and fill in a short and simple application form.

Melrose Nursery School

We work in partnership with Melrose, the leading private nursery school in west London. Melrose operate from multiple sites, but are headquartered on our church site in North Acton. We have extensive classroom, kitchen, playground, garden, and ancillary facilities, which are used exclusively by Melrose during the working day. The Melrose staff and children also make use of our church building for seasonal events and performances. We are proud of our long and established partnership with Melrose, and of the high quality provision made for local families in our community.

Children have a valued place in our fellowship.

School Applications

We sometimes receive requests to sign supplementary information forms (SIF) relating to school applications, for both Church primary schools and Church secondary schools. We hope that the following information will be of assistance to parents making school applications.

Church Membership (child) - We can only complete a SIF for a child who is an actual member of our congregation. In most cases that means that the child will be a registered member of our "Junior Church" (see above for details). However, we can also complete a SIF for a child who is not registered with us, as long as that child has been attending our church services regularly, for an extended period of time. Please note that most schools require evidence of 4 or 5 years continuous attendance, although exact requirements can vary between different schools.

Church Membership (parent) - Most schools also require evidence that at least one parent (or guardian) of the child is also a church member. For adults, church membership is indicated by inclusion on the church electoral roll. Please contact us if you are unsure whether you are so registered. Most schools also require evidence that the parent (or guardian) has been a regular attender of church services during their membership, and for several years.

Completing the Form - There is a deadline for submitting the SIF to your chosen school(s). Please be aware of this deadline, and act in good time. We need to have your child's SIF in our possession for at least one week in order to complete it - we will need longer if our parish priest or other key staff are on annual leave. The form passes between three different people during that time. It goes firstly to a member of our Children's Team, who extracts attendance statistics from the Junior Church register, and certifies these. Secondly the reference section is completed by one of our priests (usually our parish priest). Finally, the form is checked in the parish office, and the office stamp is added. We cannot short-circuit this system, and neither the priest nor any other individual can complete the form alone.

Irregular Requests - We are sometimes asked to sign forms for children who are not members of our church, or who have attended only once or twice. Please note that we cannot do these things under any circumstances. The SIF is a statement of membership, and we are never able to complete a SIF for a non-member.