About Us - History

Background to Bridgebuilder Trust

The vision for a full-time schools’ worker in MK was conceived in the late 1980s in the minds of members of the local Scripture Union Action Group and the Youth Commission of Milton Keynes Christian Council.  Representatives of both groups come together to work towards making the vision a reality.  Two years later the Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust was approved by the Charity Commissioners and, thanks to the prayerful and financial support of local churches and individual Christians, Tim Cutting was appointed full-time secondary schools’ worker in April 1993.

Since that time the Trust’s work and ministry has developed and grown. Tim consistently focused in the secondary schools and provided regular input. In late November 2006 Tim moved on from the Bridgebuilder Trust

From June 2007, Rosie Harriott became the Team Leader and Secondary Schools Worker, leading the team of two Primary Schools Workers, the Office Manager and four Voluntary Schools Workers (VSWs) who offer a range of input, including taking assemblies, lessons, supporting CU groups and special projects.

During 2001, in a joint initiative with Scripture Union, Kate Stevely was appointed (part-time) as Primary Schools Worker. She went to 4 days a week in 2004, but left the Trust in December 2005 after the birth of her first child.
In 2002 Matt Jarvis was appointed as Key Stage 3 Schools Worker and worked for 3 years before moving on to a new job in December 2005.
During 2005/06 we were able to appoint Rachel Hatto on a one-year contract as a part-time transition worker, offering a new initiative called ‘Going & Growing’ for children moving up from primary to secondary school.
In February 2006 Cathy Brunton-Spall and Katy Nenadovic were appointed as full-time primary schools workers then in 2008, Cathy moved on to start a family and Katy got married and began a career as a primary school teacher.
During August 2008, Rachel Foster joined the team as Primary Schools Worker.  

Over recent years several projects have become a regular part of the Bridgebuilder ministry into schools. Kate introduced the highly successful Christmas and Easter Cracked primary projects, which involves support from local churches. There are also Biblos, and JesusQuest.

Tim developed the MOUSE Team project (Moving On Up Schools Education Team) where each year we have a small team of Post GCSE/ University students who are trained to spend June and July visiting Year 6 pupils with a transition programme preparing them for secondary education. This presentation has become highly respected and popular amongst the primary schools.  In order to develop this we employed Rachel Hatto, a part-time Transition Worker, Rachel, has piloted a new project called ‘Going and Growing’ into a number of primary schools.

We have an office in the Denbigh West area of Milton Keynes, which provides an excellent resource for the schools workers, with invaluable support provided by part-time Office Manager and Projects Administrator, Gill Bull, and a small team of volunteers who run our busy office.
The Trust is extremely well supported by local Christians who often give their time to help run any extra-curricular events organised by the Trust.