RE News. Being Clear. Gillian Georgiou, Diocesan RE

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1 Diocese of Lincoln Education Team Summer Term 2016 RE News Being Clear The last edition of RE News focused on the importance of understanding the reason why we teach RE in schools. It talked about the purpose of RE as securing religious literacy, that is, ensuring that our pupils can hold an informed conversation about religion and belief. With this as the driving purpose of RE, the content we teach, the curriculum we design and the assessment we carry out is all geared towards producing religiously literate children and young people. In this edition, I want to focus the importance of ensuring this purpose is clear. In church schools in particular, it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish the lines between RE, collective worship and the distinctively Christian ethos, but it is crucial to be clear on where these lines sit so that we can keep tightly to our driving purpose in RE. The Church of England Education Office and RE Today Services have recently launched a resource for both church and non-church schools that will help support teachers to promote religious literacy in the classroom. Inside you can find out more information about this really exciting resource and the accredited training we will be offering in this Diocese. As ever, if you have anything to share in the next edition of RE News, please do get in touch. Gillian Georgiou, Diocesan RE Adviser Inside this issue The Importance of Clarity... 2 Understanding Christianity... 3 Exploring Pentecost... 4 The Children s Society... 5 The Indian Experience..6 Visiting Places of Worship... 7 TES Awards Special points of interest Celebrations of excellent practice The latest resources from the Church of England Education Office Developing religious literacy

2 The Importance of Clarity How does RE relate to the distinctive Christian character of a church school/academy? Without a clear purpose, RE at both primary and secondary level can sometimes feel very confused. I have observed (and occasionally taught!) lessons that are a mixture of religion and belief, PSHE, spiritual development, history and citizenship. When you add a distinctively Christian ethos and collective worship into the mix, things can become downright confusing and that s just for the teachers! Just as an experiment, ask your pupils what they think they are doing in RE. I suspect the answers will cover a huge range of ideas. Then try the same exercise with your head teacher or governors. It is really important to be clear about the ways in which RE is distinct from collective worship and the broader Christian ethos of church schools and academies. RE is a curriculum area and, as such, must be very focused on its purpose of study: to enable pupils to be able to hold informed conversations about religion and belief. It is to be noted here that this is not limited to holding informed conversations about Christianity, although it is expected that pupils in church schools and academies should certainly be confident talking about Christianity. It is really important to be clear about the ways in which RE is distinct from collective worship and the broader Christian ethos of church schools and academies. The attempt to gain clarity is not entirely supported by the Section 48/SIAMS inspection framework (the inspection of the religious character of church schools). Whether your school or academy is voluntary controlled or voluntary aided, your RE will be inspected under Core Question 1 ( How well does the school, through its distinctive Christian character, meet the needs of all learners? ) - specifically, the inspector will judge to what extent RE contributes to the Christian character of the school. [If your school is voluntary aided, RE will also be inspected under Core Question 3: How effective is the religious education? ] There is no clear guidance as to what is meant by the contribution of RE to the Christian character of the school. Many schools interpret it to mean the extent to which the school or academy s distinctively Christian values are present in RE lessons. Bearing in mind that these values are also likely to be a focus in collective worship, this can lead to a bleeding together of RE, values and collective worship. This is exacerbated by the fact that in almost every school I and my colleagues visit, the RE subject leader is also the collective worship coordinator. The driving purpose of RE represents the distinctive contribution that RE makes to the religious character of church schools; pupils who understand the value and contribution of religion and belief to the world and are able to discourse confidently about a range of religions and beliefs will be in a strong position to fully engage with the Christian character of the school. If the RE is of high quality and is producing pupils who are religiously literate, then it is effectively contributing to the religious character of the school or academy. The distinctively Christian values of the school should therefore be no more a focus in RE than they would be in any other curriculum area. To put it another way, the values of the school should permeate the whole life of the school, including the entire curriculum. 2

3 Understanding Christianity Understanding Christianity is a new resource from the Church of England Education Office and RE Today Services. Its key purpose is to support pupils in developing their understanding of Christianity. The resource is suitable for both church and non-church schools, but sets the bar for the quality of teaching and learning about Christianity in church schools. It shows that we expect an approach that explores the core concepts of Christianity in a progressive way, engaging with biblical texts and developing religious and theological literacy. Understanding Christianity offers a spiral model of investigating eight core Christian concepts that tell the big story of Christianity. The resource pack includes: A teacher s handbook including background information on the concepts to support teacher confidence 29 full units of work from FS2 to KS3 based on enquiry questions that help pupils explore the eight concepts in a way that deepens knowledge and understanding throughout the key stages Knowledge building blocks and end of phase outcomes to help teachers assess progress and achievement Over 150 photocopiable resource sheets The Big Frieze illustration by Emma Yarlett giving a visual overview of the big story of Christianity Password access to the Understanding Christianity website, which contains additional support materials In order to access the Understanding Christianity resource pack, it is necessary to attend the accredited training. For more information about the resource and its associated training, please visit our website ( understanding-christianity/) or Gillian Georgiou, Diocesan RE Adviser and accredited trainer, at gillian.georgiou@lincoln.anglican.org. Training will be available around the Diocese of Lincoln during Book early to avoid disappointment places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. 3

4 Pentecost The whole school have been learning about Pentecost in RE lessons. The week ended with a day where children and staff wore flame coloured clothes to remember what happened at Pentecost. Children were busy in the week writing prayers on flame shapes and creating art work related to flames. We all really enjoyed learning about this special celebration in the Christian year. Lizzy Parry, RE Subject Leader Ruskington Chestnut Street CofE Primary School Learning about Pentecost Christians have recently celebrated the festival of Pentecost, which marks the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus disciples and the birth of the Christian church. Two local schools have been learning more: We started Pentecost with a collective worship lead by Rev. Eleanor, our Methodist Minister. Eleanor used the idea of power in her worship. She asked the children to look at lots of appliances with flat batteries and talked about them needing power to fulfil their purpose. She read from the Bible and explained that the Holy Spirit gave the Apostles the power to fulfil God s purpose. We said the Lord s Prayer and Rev. Eleanor drew attention to the word power. In RE lessons, each class learnt about an element of Pentecost focusing on themes such as the symbol of wind and God s transforming power (taken from the materials in Festival Matters). All the children in the school had the opportunity to make a paper bird out of flame coloured paper to contribute to our Pentecost display. Liz Moore, RE Subject Leader Bardney CofE Methodist Primary School 4

5 Christingle and Religious Literacy Last month I met with Jane Foster and Ceri Sunu from The Children s Society. Some of you may be familiar with the work they are doing to support vulnerable children and young people in this country who are facing issues of hardship, abuse and neglect. As well as working directly with young people, The Children s Society also campaign on issues of poverty (which resulted in the free school meals initiative in 2014), more protection for sexually exploited children, and greater mental health provision for children and young people. As Ceri has been working on preparing for Christingle this year, we talked a lot about how a Christingle event can support your pupils religious literacy in relation to Christianity. If you re not familiar with Christingle, I d definitely encourage you to take a look at The Children s Society s website. Because it was designed specifically to help children understand the Gospel, Christingle works as a great teaching tool as well as making for a really fun end of term celebration in the run up to Christmas. It also helps children to develop their moral values, learn empathy for others and demonstrate practical actions they can take to support others who are vulnerable or less fortunate. I m hoping to take Jane and Ceri out to meet some of you so that can hear more about how the work they do can support your school. If you d be interested in speaking to them, do let me know. Equally, if you want to hold a Christingle celebration this year and would like some support, you can contact Jane directly by to Jane.Foster@childrenssociety.org.uk or by calling Messy Cathedral at Lincoln Cathedral Come and explore the stories Jesus told in Lincoln Cathedral free entry for families, bring your own packed lunch. To book or for further information, please Rev. Philippa White at curate@lincolncathedral.com or ring Tuesday 26th July am-13.30pm 5

6 Indian Experience Helen Metheringham, RE Subject Leader at Great Gonerby St Sebastian s CofE Primary School, recently invited Sunita Patel of The Indian Experience to visit KS2. She writes, Sunita was wonderful. She first presented a retelling of the festival of Holi to the whole school during collective worship time. This had over 100 children spellbound for about 45 minutes; they joined in with facial expressions and noises for certain characters. She then took two separate sessions with y3/4 and 5/6 on dispelling myths about Indian culture and diversity. After this, she worked with Y5/6 to make some stunning rangoli patterns and then the Y3/4s were able to dress up and do Bollywood dancing. It was brilliant! A great day was had by all and she was able to relate to the children in an effective and engaging way. You can find out more about the Indian Experience here. Exploring Easter at St Michael s Primary School Staff and pupils at St Michael s CofE Primary School, Thorpe on the Hill, have been exploring the Easter story. Each class contributed to a large display that explored the symbolism and significance of the cross. Bishop of Uganda visits St Peter in Eastgate Infants St Peter in Eastgate Infant School had a wonderful visit from Bishop Johnson of Uganda on 12 th February. The Bishop and his wife took part in our school s collective worship and explained to the children what life was like in Uganda for children. Christine, the Bishop s wife, showed the children a number of jobs girls in Uganda had to do before going to school such as sweeping the floors and collecting water for the family to drink and bath in. Christine demonstrated carrying the water on her head and some children tried this too. Christine also showed the children how they carry their babies on their backs. Bishop Johnson talked to the children about his job and how important it was. He also explained to the children that they only have one meal a day and that this is at 3pm each day. Julia Marshall, Head Teacher 6

7 The Magdalen CofE/Methodist Primary School Visit to Peterborough On Monday 18 th May Year 3 and 4 children from the Magdalen CofE/Methodist Primary School visited the Masjid Ghousia Mosque in Peterborough and Peterborough Cathedral. The purpose of the visit was for the children to gain some first-hand experience of different places of worship and to learn about religious signs and symbols in Christianity and Islam. The visit was of tremendous value at many different levels. Many of the children had never travelled outside Lincolnshire and it widened their experience to travel to a big city and see such enormous and impressive buildings. They also saw people from other cultural backgrounds dressed differently and were interested and respectful. At the mosque the children were welcomed by members of the community, shown where to leave their shoes and went into the prayer hall. The children met a senior member of the congregation who welcomed them, told them about the 5 pillars of Islam and explained what these mean to members of the congregation. They discussed the practical implications of belonging to the community, and discussed questions for example, how do you pray at midday if your boss won t give you time off work and what is it like to fast if Ramadan takes place during the long summer days? The children were given a tour of the mosque and the wudhu (washing area) and took part in a question and answer session. Topics discussed included gender equality and whether or not anyone could ever be coerced into becoming a Muslim. It was an aspirational and helpful visit and the children really enjoyed it. Their prior knowledge was excellent and they showed that they had learned and understood the 5 pillars of Islam. They enjoyed the splendour and opulence of the mosque. The children were then taken to Peterborough Cathedral, which is in a very different area of the city and surrounded by large grand buildings rather than tiny residential streets. At the Cathedral the children were welcomed by the education team. In the afternoon all children had time to look around the cloisters, a tour of the cathedral looking at Christian signs and symbols and then an art workshop where they used the information they had learned to design and make pictures of stained glass windows. These would later be made into bookmarks by the cathedral photographer and used for the Pentecost celebrations. The group of children I was supporting were accompanied around the cathedral by an education guide who was absolutely excellent at communicating with children. She talked about the sign of the cross and the children helped to baptise a baby doll in a mock baptism ceremony. They played the part of parents and godparents. They then looked at a large suspended crucifix and talked about the figure of Christ on the cross, sang a song at Anne Boleyn s tomb and asked and answered questions about the symbolism of the service of Holy Communion. They showed that they knew and understood key elements of the life of Christ and the Christian story and what happens in Christian worship. They had a good knowledge of religious language and could identify the font, lectern, altar and cross and talk about the elements of the Baptism and Holy Communion services. This was a long day packed with good learning experiences. I would like to thank Miss Martin and all of the staff for an excellent educational visit and a day which the children will remember for a long time. Carol Acheson, Chair of Governors 7

8 Congratulations! Congratulations to Frances Olive Anderson CofE Primary School, who have again been nominated for the TES International Award for their work as part of the British Council s Connecting Classrooms programme. The school, which is twinned with the Mohammad Shamel State School in Beirut, was recently featured in The Church Times. Pupils at both schools are in regular contact and teachers from both schools have participated in exchange experiences. Stewart Cook, who oversees the twinning, has worked with other Lincolnshire schools as an ambassador for the British Council. To find out more about the Connecting Classrooms programme, see here. To find out more about this year s TES Awards, see here. Holy Week at Ellison Boulters Staff and pupils at Ellison Boulters CofE Academy took part in an immersive learning experience to find out more about the events of Holy Week. Liz Peachman, RE Subject Leader, explains more: Rev. Adam Watson took on the role of Jesus. Jeeves was the name of our beautiful donkey. The disciples were two willing volunteers from the local Christian community, one of them being the owner of the donkey. The whole school community celebrated the arrival of Jesus into Jerusalem at the start of our day when we were thinking about the events of Holy Week and Easter. Bible Links, a local Christian charity, kindly led year 5 & 6 pupils in an interactive prayer space experience entitled 'Journey into Easter. Baptism at Dunholme St Chad s The Reception children at Dunholme St Chad s CofE Primary School recently enjoyed planning the baptism of their class baby, Matthew Stephen Chad, and thoroughly enjoyed sharing his special day. Children made cards, wrote invitations to their families and baked and iced a Christening cake for Matthew. They each had a role as a Godparent or family member and dressed up in their smartest clothes for the occasion. Reverend Adam kindly conducted the ceremony to which parents were invited and then we all returned to school for a slice of Christening cake. Emma Atkinson, RE Subject Leader Diocese of Lincoln Education Team 103 Newport Lincoln LN1 3EE Phone: education@lincoln.anglican.org.uk