Taking “The Mary Project” Christmas Workshop into School

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had the joy of writing and designing a brand-new schools workshop. We called it The Mary Project, and it quickly became clear that this was something special. We have just piloted it with with Year 7 pupils at Ysgol Aberconwy.

The Mary Project explores bold courage and healthy fear through the person of Mary, the mother of Jesus, using the Christmas story as its foundation. Rather than presenting fear as something to simply avoid or defeat, we invite young people to think about fear as something more complex, something that can be challenging, meaningful, and even formative. Courage, for Mary, didn’t mean being ‘fearless’ it meant being afraid, trusting in God, and doing the hard things anyway.

The Mary Project has been designed as a fully interactive experience, combining relevant games, small-group discussions, personal moments of quiet reflection, carefully selected videos and music, an entirely ad hoc (and hilarious!) nativity, and gives a small meaningful token for each young person to take home.

Mary’s story gives us space to talk honestly about uncertainty, risk, courage, and saying “yes” when you don’t have all the answers. These themes resonate strongly with young people navigating big transitions in their own lives.

Why this matters at Christmas

We intentionally created The Mary Project for this particular time of year to help serve the needs of local schools. The run-up to Christmas can be notoriously difficult for schools to programme. Timetables are disrupted, excitement levels are high, and regular lessons often become harder to sustain.

This workshop was created to fit flexibly into busy December schedules, offer something meaningful without adding pressure, and complement RE provision while remaining engaging and accessible

Feedback from the RE teacher, Head of RE, and the students themselves was very positive. Young people were thoughtful, engaged, and willing to reflect. This is no small achievement in the final weeks of term. We’re very grateful to the school for allowing us the chance to run this project and trusting us to speak into their pupil’s lives.

What’s next?

This session was always intended as a pilot, and it’s given us plenty to reflect on. We’re already planning small tweaks and improvements, with the hope of rolling The Mary Project out to several more schools next year.

We’re deeply encouraged by how warmly it was received and excited about developing this further as a resource that supports schools, young people, and meaningful conversations about faith, fear, and courage.

If you’d like to know more about this workshop — or explore joining us in other projects and youth ventures — we’d love to hear from you.