What is ‘Detached’?

Detached is one of my favourite programmes we deliver at Phase! Every week we do Detached work during lunch break in various schools around Hitchin.

The aim of Detached is to connect with young people outside the classroom, to have fun and to be a positive presence on the playground. 

Each Monday, we help out at the quiet area in Wilshere Dacre, often playing multiple rounds of Top Trumps, refereeing board games, colouring in, or just chatting to the children about how their day’s going. 

Wednesday is our regular day for detached at Hitchin Girls’ School; this week Helen and I debated with year 7s and 8s about whether it was too early to put up Christmas decorations or not. We even heard a song a year 7 had written for the Phase team about resilience - definitely one of the highlights of my week.

Thursdays and Fridays are often days for detached at The Priory and Hitchin Boy’s School. These detached sessions can be quite active, joining in with football or basketball. Recently I even learnt how to march as one of the year 9 students we regularly connect with was preparing for their Remembrance Day parade with cadets.

I couldn’t write a blog about our lunchtime programme without mentioning our Christian Union at Hitchin Boys’ School on a Tuesday ‘Holding Nothing Back’. This is a space for any student, regardless of their faith, to come and have fun, catch up, play some games, discuss big questions about life and learn about the Christian faith. This week, we played ‘Herd Mentality’ which the group absolutely loved and we’ve just started watching the Vox Youth video series by Christianity Explored. 

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