PeaceWiseKids and PeaceWiseYouth – the journey from 2008

Six courses completed, covering ages 4-16 so far

Well, as it currently stands the PeaceWiseKids team have now completed all the development of courses for K-10!

That’s six full age-appropriate course adaptations of the adult peacemaking principles to ‘grow peacemakers for life’, developed over four years (the project commenced in October 2016), covering ages 4 through to 16.

This is the realisation of a dream that was placed on the hearts of early PeaceWise pioneers twelve years ago, when a vision of teaching peacemaking to children in schools was first documented on 19 May 2008. All that time ago, God was already active building a passion for the work that is now nearing completion. Although we still have Course 7 (Years 11-12) to create, we already now have a comprehensive set of courses available for both Primary and Secondary (PeaceWiseYouth).

We give deep thanks to God for making this possible, in the face of sometimes seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Our thanks also go out to you!

The fact is, we could not have done this without you, without your prayers and support and backing and so much more! THANK YOU!

Teach peacemaking to children in their very first year of school – what better time to learn?!

Course 1 for the First Year of School is now complete and ready for rollout, going live on 30 September. This course features the adventures of Frilly the frill-necked lizard with her larger-than-life friends, Krash the koala, Ella the rosella, Wally the wallaby, and Tass the Tasmanian Devil, as Frilly and her friends learn how to become a peacemaker from their teacher, Mr (Kooka) Burra. These characters encounter the very kinds of conflicts that our children encounter in their first year of school.

The course features six full-colour beautifully illustrated PowerPoint stories with engaging rhyming verse, all deliverable on Smartboard/TV/device technology. And all backed with our comprehensive Lesson Plans, activities, suite of support documents, and Scope and Sequence for effective deployment in your school – or home!

The team are so excited about this course. Many thanks to Tim Merks (illustrations), Rob Harding (voices), Scott Collins (sound effects) and Mariah Reilly (graphic design) for their creative skills in helping us develop PeaceWiseKids’ curriculum. Tim, Rob and Mariah journeyed with us through several courses, and we’re deeply grateful for their faithfulness to us and the work.

A wrap for the current creative team

(Bruce Burgess, Sally Pilgrim, Angie Conroy & Steve Wickham)

The present team, who picked up the baton from Viv Batt in March 2019, are now celebrating a successful project completed.

The team of Steve Wickham (Project Manager – Content and Curriculum), Angie Conroy and Sally Pilgrim (Writers and Curriculum Advisers), with the help of Deborah Bensted (Technology and Systems Support) and Bruce Burgess (Project Head) have now successfully created Course 3 (Years 3-4), Course 2 (Years 1-2), and Course 1 (First Year of School).

As a team, we’ve encountered significant challenges. These have included:

working hard to keep the content fresh and consistent across all courses, and trying to avoid “Christian cringe” (you know what we mean…)
massive technological challenges, including running a robust online learning management system which can be accessed by thousands of users
people working across 5 locations in 3 States
a big vision and a relatively small budget (given the crazy scale and scope of what we’ve been working to do!).

We have ALL grown as a result of working together on this project. We’re all very thankful to God for his guiding hand in everything.

PeaceWiseKids and PeaceWiseYouth has now been used by dozens of schools across every State and Territory in Australia, plus countless homes, churches and Scripture classes. And thousands of children. And its reach continues to grow – it’s even begun to be used internationally too.

Please continue to spread the word and pray for the ongoing growth of the use of these materials, and for the new team needed to create the final course for Years 11-12, as we push on to grow…

peacemakers for life!

The PeaceWiseKids team