I hope everyone had a very happy Easter.

It was so good to spend much of my time while Parliament wasn’t sitting going around as many schools and community groups as possible.

The children at Belle Vue Primary went all out with their Easter decorating competition. Designs ranged from traditional Easter bonnets covered with happy looking baby chicks, to paper machete Hogwarts-style castles cleverly named “Eggwarts”.

Children at Crestwood Park Primary also proudly showed off their artsy creations, just before telling me about some of the fantastic things their teachers organise for them to do in the local community as part of their regular ‘Acts of Kindness’ challenge.

Whether it’s at schools in Kingswinford, Wordsley, Pensnett, Brierley Hill, Netherton or anywhere else in the constituency, there is nothing more motivating than seeing our impressive local children and staff at work in the uniquely special atmosphere of their school.

I also really enjoyed meeting with the school councils at the Glynne Primary, Brockmoor Primary and Woodside Primary schools. The children were extremely impressive and were clearly proud of their schools.

They all did an amazing job of talking about the work they were doing, and had some tricky questions for me when it was my turn to answer. They are fantastic examples of the talent that we have in our local schools, and the hard work that they – and the teachers and staff who support the school councils – are putting into making them even better places to learn and develop.

Of course, being Easter time, our local churches have been bursting with activity as well – and plenty of clubs and groups for children and adults of all ages have been gathering at our local churches.

For the Wall Heath and Kingswinford community, it was an especially memorable Easter as it was the first they have been able to celebrate at their new shiny two-storey Wall Heath Evangelical Free Church building on the Enville Road, which I had the pleasure of being at the opening of the weekend before last.

Just as with the new Stourbridge Glass Museum which has opened on the site of the old White House Glass Cone in Audnam, Wordsley, Wall Heath Evangelical Free Church’s new home also took more than 10 years to take from vision to completion.

Both of these fantastic places are more than just buildings, they are hard grafted for and much-loved facilities which will help bring our community together for many years to come.

It was moving to visit Albion Street church and hear from former addicts - many of whom had been homeless and some involved in crime to feed their addictions - who had had their lives turned around thanks to support and mentoring from a residential centre run by church members.

As well as Easter, last weekend also saw members of our Jewish community celebrating Passover and Muslims are marking the holy month of Ramadan, the first time the three festivals have coincided for 30 years.

A huge amount of credit is deserved by all the volunteers, and community groups – including faith-based groups, cultural organisations, community centres and many others – for the work that they do all year round, and without whose efforts our communities would undoubtedly be poorer.