Religious education through our lived experiences
This term we have chosen to focus on learning through real life experiences. The photographs below celebrate our strong progress in bringing religion to life by learning through experiences and from visitors. We feel that it is incredibly important for children to have memorable experiences at school particularly when learning about new ideas that they are not familiar with. It has been fantastic to see how engaged children across the school have been with their RE learning this term and how excited the children have been to share their knowledge and experiences with others.
What is a celebration?
In Nursery, the children have been looking at what a celebration is and why they are important. The children focussed on weddings by exploring what a wedding is and what happens at a wedding. The children looked at photographs of their parents' weddings and learnt about the different roles and key features of a wedding. The children noted the things that remain the same across all cultures including food, special clothes and flowers. The children enjoyed bringing features of a wedding to life by creating flower bouquets.
What does it mean to belong?
Year one have been learning about what it means to belong and why this is important. The children came up with examples of groups that they belong to including a class, a family, a club, a religion or a friendship group. Each class made a flag to represent each member of the class and to demonstrate belonging. Year one also identified signs of belonging to a religion such as attending a place of worship and wearing special items of clothing. The children understand that there are a number of religions in the world and that religious people have different ways of showing that they belong to their faith.
A Sukkot comes to visit
Year three have been learning about festivals including the Jewish festival Sukkot. The children had a special visit from a local Rabbi who spoke to them about why the Sukkot festival is special for Jews and how the festival is celebrated at home and in the Synagogue. The children in year three had the opportunity to see a Sukkah and to find out that a Sukkah symbolizes the unity of all different people and cultures. Year three have also been studying creation stories and comparing Christian, Jewish and Muslim beliefs about the creation of the world.
Growing faiths
The children in year six carried out a local study on faiths in Greenwich as part of a community project. They have studied what faiths make up Greenwich and how these have changed over time. They have also explored how faith communities support members of other communities. The children enjoyed researching and gathering data for their local study! The children asked a variety of questions including how places of worship are used within Greenwich.
