There are many different types of Christian church, each having its own particular 'flavour' or emphasis within its Christian teaching. Churches are integral to the fabric of local communities as, apart from meeting to worship together on Sundays, they are often at the heart of the community through all the other activities with which they are involved.
If your school is initiating a new partnership with a local church, discuss with your staff to find out where connections and relationships already exist, as the basis from which to start. Then contact the church leader to start the conversation. Contact details are usually available on the notice board outside a church building or on their website. In some churches, the leader is the main contact. In others, there will be a church office. The size of church congregations varies enormously; some churches have a whole team of paid leaders, others may have just one leader who is a volunteer. Be aware of these limitations when discussing the church's involvement in your school.
The whole of the UK is divided up into geographical areas known as parishes - parishes linked to an Anglican church, and parishes linked to a Catholic church (these overlap and will have different boundaries). Wherever your school is located in the UK, it will be located within both an Anglican parish and a Catholic parish. You should easily identify the Anglican parish church near to you, and there may also be a Catholic church nearby.
The more historic branches of the church are known as denominations. The main denominations include the Anglican Church (the Church of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales), the Roman Catholic Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army and the United Reform Church. In England, the main historic denominations belong to Churches Together in England .
In your area, you may also find a range of Pentecostal churches, Free Evangelical churches, churches made up primarily of Black Minority Ethnic congregations (often originating from one particular area of the world) and churches which worship in the native language of the congregation members e.g. Chinese churches.
There is also a range of 'new' churches which have grown up in the last 30 years belonging to Christian networks such as Vineyard, New Frontiers, New Wine, Salt and Light and Pioneer. These are, in effect, new denominations and each has their own particular way of being a church. Some of these new churches meet in people's homes or in schools, hotels, pubs or other public buildings. Others have purpose built complexes in warehouse style buildings, which act as the base for all their activities during the week, their administration offices and also their worship centre.