Hi! I'm the Parish Priest, Robert Warren. They call me Fr Robert - at least to my face! My predecessor founded the school and I have a lot of contact with them. I serve on their Board of Governors...as a Pastoral Governor... praying for them, celebrating the Eucharist for the Teachers once a month, being available to Staff, Parents and Pupils, taking assemblies.
It is the sort of job you can't get away from nor would you want to. You can wear your oldest and most disreputable clothes up at the shopping centre and you will hear a young voice pipe up, "Hi Fr Robert!". I love working with children. They are often very wise and very much to the point... there is little pretence in the youngest of them. I like to think of them as my friends, because that is what both the school and the church are about...like the Year 1 Child in assembly. I asked, "Where did Jesus come from?" The answer, "From his Mum's tummy." No side, just the straight answer.
St Laurence Church
A short history by Father Robert
In the SW Corner of Birmingham's oldest building, St Laurence Parish Church, the St Laurence Schools began - possible first in 1622 and then certainly after the Civil War in 1714.
Archdeacon Wm Worth reopened his parish school with monies from the newly formed Society of the Propagation of Christian Knowledge (SPCK)! For a child, an education was a way out the "slavery" of a nailer's cottage.
It was only in 1837 with help again from SPCK that the Rector, Henry Clarke, had built the "Northfield School" across the road from the Church. By the 1960's the old schools were not adequate for modern education and Fr. John Crowle Ellis had purchased a new site to educate the children of the parish - not just church folk, but he made it certain that the Church would have maximum input into the school's life ...a Voluntary Aided School.In the Parish Church is the foundation of the schools' life.
Nailers' Cottages
School and Church Links
School services are mostly held in the Church. The Rector takes assemblies and services in the schools. Parishioners serve on the Board of Governors of the two schools. They continue the vision which generations of priest and people had - for quality education for all, because they are made in God's image.
