Our Smarties Group meets every Wednesday morning during term time from 9:30am - 11am.  Parents, Grandparents and Childminders / Carers with children in their care under school age are welcome.

We usually begin with play involving an assortment of toys, jigsaws, colouring, and reading books. We then have a break during which refreshments are served (juice and biscuits). The session might conclude with more play, a craft activity, and music.

Our Priest in Charge often pops in to have a chat with the parents and carers and meet the children. It is lovely to build personal relationships with the families and several parents have had their children baptised at St Michael's or been married at St Michael's.

This is a very popular group, which at times has necessitated in us having a waiting list. If you live in the Parish of East Ardsley and would like to bring your child along, do please send us a message because we currently have some spaces available.

Our Sunday School meets in the Sunday School building every Sunday during term time at 10am and is open to all children from the age of 3. We usually begin with All Age Worship, which includes songs, stories, games and prayers, and often an associated craft. We then split into groups based on age, so that more age-appropriate learning and playing can be done. Finally, we all come together at the end of the hour for a final song before we go home. For any parents or carers who want to attend the Church service, we are in Sunday School early to allow you to go into Church, and we will happily bring your children up to Church if we finish first.

Sunday School is also involved in All Age Worship services in Church where we join with the rest of the Church congregation for such events as Harvest Festival, Mothering Sunday and Christingle. A particular highlight of our year is our Nativity which is performed in Church on Christmas Eve, and really gets Christmas off to a good start.

During the year we also hold fundraising events that we encourage the children to be involved in running. In previous years we have held a very popular Afternoon Tea, which has raised funds that have been donated to Martin House Hospice. We have done shoeboxes at Christmas and made gift bags for the homeless.

Our biggest fundraiser of the year is our annual Pantomime. This has been running for over 40 years and is such a lot of fun, as well as hard work. It really helps to boost the children’s confidence and is loved by both the children and the adults who help out.

We also enjoy a day trip each year. In past years, we have visited Cannon Hall Farm, Yorkshire Wildlife Park, or Lotherton Hall. It is always great to watch the children as they play together and watch out for each other on these days out.

Sometimes people say that children are the Church of tomorrow, however, the leadership of St Michael's firmly believe that the children are also part of the Church of today. Our aim is to equip our children for their lives with God, to give them an understanding of the Christian faith, to learn Christian values, to enable them to become confident Christians and to do all this whilst having loads of fun.

Seekers is the youth group for those in school year 6 through to year 13. We are a natural progression from Sunday School and many of our children overlap with both groups. We welcome any new members that have not been part of Sunday school, and also friends of existing members.

Our meetings are a mixture of Christian teachings, games and activities alongside social events and non-Christian themed activity evenings. We meet fortnightly on alternative Sundays, usually during term time, in the evening between 7:00 and 8:30 PM.

We also partake in days out as well as an annual weekend away, which in recent years has always been to Scarborough. For more information on joining our Seekers, do please contact youth group our Youth Group Coordinator, Alison Cassidy, on 07960 463028 or by email by clicking here. We would love to see you. .