SACREs + Governors + Teachers = Great RE

11 SACRE pupil ~ teacher conferences

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80 year 5 pupils 20 year 8 pupils, trained as facilitators 20+ teachers – a CPD experience and a folder of 12 quality RE activities, plus a network group launch Respect for all – deep shared learning about religions, and spiritual and moral development through curricular work Teamwork, creative theology, diversity in action, inter faith dialogue, space for all views, dynamic ‘turning point’ RE No SACRE? No conference!

No teachers? No conference!

No Pupils? No conference!

Spiritual development – growth in understanding of spirituality and in skills and qualities of spiritual development such as hope, courage, reflection, compassion Moral development – increasing understanding of and commitment to what is good and right and rejection of wrong, bad or evil.

Personal Development through RE: the subject makes an holistic contribution to spiritual, moral, social and cultural development Social development – engaging with relationships and community in increasingly empathic, dynamic and creative ways for the wellbeing of all Cultural development – developing wide and deep appreciation of my identity and its expression in arts, sport, dress, celebration et al. The same appreciation grows for the diversity of others’ cultures.

The milk and the jasmine flower

Guru Nanak believed that everyone is equal. Rich or poor, sad or happy, brainy or practical: God sees everyone equally. Nanak and Mardana were travelling to a new city in India 500 years ago. He was such a famous holy man that the news about his arrival spread, and before he even got to the city gates, the holy men who lived in the city were talking about him. They were worried!

They knew Nanak was a truly good and holy person, and they had promised to try to be good like him. But they had actually been greedy and unkind. They were scared of Guru Nanak’s arrival. He might show them up! They decided to send a messenger with a bowl full of milk as a gift to say that there was no room for anyone else in the city: as the bowl was full, so was the city, and they were sorry that they could not receive Nanak and Mardana. Would the Guru and his companion please go somewhere else?

As Guru Nanak walked up the road to the city gates, the messengers met him, carrying the gift of a large bowl, full to the brim with fresh milk. “Our holy men send you this milk, and apologise that they cannot receive you’ said the messengers. ‘Our city is already too full of holy men. You could go somewhere else.” Nanak sat down with the messengers and the bowl. Before he drank any, he picked a jasmine flower from a wayside bush and floated it on the top of the milk. Not a drop spilled out. He looked around the group before he spoke, with a smile: “I think the city is not quite full” he said. “As the flower finds space in the full bowl of milk, so there is always room for more holiness in the world.” The flower floated on top of the milk and not a drop was spilt: there was room for it!

The messengers went back into the city and told the holy men what had happened. They suddenly saw the stupidity of what they had tried to do, and felt sorry that they had tried to send Nanak and Mardana away. They threw open the city gates and asked Nanak and Mardana to stay with them, and teach them how to fill their city with good things.

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Why did the holy men of the city try to stop Guru Nanak from coming?

What makes people feel ‘shown up’? Have you had this feeling lately? (You could talk with a partner about this) Why do you think Guru Nanak did the experiment with the jasmine flower, instead of just marching in to the city?

“The world is not full enough of...” Can the class think of lots of things that we need more of, in the world today?

These children have heard the story. What do you think they might be doing next?

“There is always more room in the world for ...” Children made mod roc bowls, thinking about what they might be filled with.

“There is always more room in the world for ...” Crafty RE is usually fun and can be profound

“There is always more room in the world for ...” Children had lots of good ideas about the qualities that will make a better world

Friendship Encouragement Hope Harmony Praise Justice Courage Co operation Love Wisdom Truth Patience Sharing

Display of the bowls made by Charlotte’ White’s class: “There is always more room in the world for...” On the next set of slides, you will see the work the children wrote about this activity. They explain their spiritual words carefully.

These children are all 8 or 9 years old, a mixture of girls and boys.

Which one do you like best?

What would you write?

“We told the children they were going to read a story from the Sikh faith. We used the story of the Milk and the Jasmine Flower.

Children had not done much study of the Sikhs before, so we introduced the religion using basic information through a PowerPoint slide show. I asked children to think about how the story can influence the way Sikhs live and behave. After hearing the story, we talked about these questions: Was the bowl full of milk a symbol of something else? Why did Guru add a Jasmine flower? What was his purpose in doing this? What effect did it have on the other people in the story?

I introduced the craft activity we had planned to the children: each one had to make their own bowl out of mod roc, and an origami flower. I asked them to think about something that the world can always use more. Just as Guru Nanak taught there is always more room for holiness, goodness, generosity or kindness, so I wanted them to think of the wise word they felt there should be more of in the world – and the classroom. This was a key aim: to enable children to choose a spiritual virtue they really think matters.” Charlotte White, Year 4 Class Teacher

The children had to think of their own single spiritual word which they believed would have a positive impact on others. We spent some time talking about other symbols in story (there’s a literacy link to metaphor and symbolic language) before moving on to making origami jasmine flowers. This gives the children a practical time when they may also think more about the story. Then we matched up some ‘wise words’ with some common symbols: peace / dove / caring / holding hands / love / heart; I’d made a PowerPoint of internet images and asked children which wise word went with each symbol or image. Children discussed what they thought each image or symbol represented. When they had made the mod roc bowl, children decorated and painted these with paint and oil pastels, applying their own symbols and design ideas. They put their jasmine flowers into the bowl, and we encouraged them to share the reasons they had for choosing their spiritual word. We set up a writing activity for children to reflect on the reasons why they felt sure there is always room for more love, care or kindness in the world.”

Charlotte White, Year 4 Class Teacher

“I find myself, a 38 year old married man with two children, loving my job, reasonably content most of the time, with periods of ecstasy and spells of gloom, and yet for reasons both explicable and inexplicable I wish I could find a God to believe in. It ought to be simple – decide to believe, stop being a smart-arse, find a church, temple, mosque, woodland ritual, statue of a thing, special book or ritualistic dance, and get stuck in. I know a great number of people far cleverer than me who believe in God without any trouble at all. So why can’t I?”

“Though I seek to express myself through comedy a lot of the time, there are some things I’m deadly serious about, and the desire for a workable and available Deity in my life is one of them...

I wish there was a God. I wish for that God to exist now and for all time. I wish to be fully conscious of God and more importantly for Him to be fully conscious of me. I wish for God to be powerful, infinitely wise, kind, loving, fair....”

SACREs + Teachers = Great RE

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SACREs service to RE is always via the teachers Great SACREs are critical friends to teachers – with the emphasis on friendship Projects of SACRE matter. Focus on pupil and teacher need. EG: youth SACRE, CPD, conferences, student voice in RE, syllabus making, planning support, pupil conferences, faith trails and tours, awards and prizes and many more Citizenship or History teachers might be jealous!

SACREs + Governors + Teachers = Great RE

Lat Blaylock www.retoday.org.uk

[email protected]

Copyright May 2012