RE

The Grand Mosque Bradford

 in Class Four / Class Three / RE by

All of KS2 travelled to Bradford yesterday to learn more about the Islamic faith by visiting their very sacred place of prayer and worship.

Bilali, our guide for the day, welcomed us at the door and led us all around the inside and outside of the Mosque.  We began with the grand entrance hall with a huge glass chandelier and as we looked around, Bilali pointed out all the different symbols and features around us.  We moved on to the place for ritual washing (called wudu) before prayer, which was a huge bathroom where Muslims will cleanse by washing the face, arms and feet; before wiping the head.  We then moved on to the main prayer room where we learnt all about the weekly homework set my the Imam every Friday.  This encourages the community to do good things – either for each other or for God’s creation – linking our Christian Values with Islamic beliefs.

We learnt more about the five pillars of Islam too; about the festival of Eid and Ramadan from our expert guide and the children had many interesting and valuable questions to ask!

We even remembered to step in and out of the Mosque using the correct foot first (the right foot) which we had learnt from Mohammad at our live-linkup with him the day before our trip.

The Grand Mosque also provided us with delicious treats at lunchtime for both children and staff; and each child was presented with a gift bag containing information books, quizzes, pens, stickers and more!

Thank you to everyone at the mosque for making us so welcome and teaching us so much about faith in our communities.  We all valued our experience so very much and will certainly be back in a few years time when our current infant children move up to the juniors.

 

Visiting the Buddhist Temple

 in Class One / Class Two / RE / Whole School by

Reception, Year One and Two had a wonderful visit to the Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre in Ulverston yesterday. We were greeted at the temple by our guide Kerrin who led us through a guided meditation session and taught us a little more about the Buddhist faith. We learnt that Buddhists believe in living their lives built on love, compassion and empathy.

Our meditation session focused on steady breathing and everyone agreed they felt calm and relaxed afterwards! We enjoyed looking at the statues of the Gods and Goddesses, learning their names and spotting the largest dharma wheel in the building. Can you find it amongst our photos?

 

Multi-Faith Week

 in RE / Whole School by

We are currently enjoying learning more about some of the many faiths followed by people across our community and the wider world.  At our School, we spend a lot of time learning about Christianity, but this week we have immersed ourselves  in the faiths of Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism through the theme of prayer.

Each day, we have started with a whole school assembly led by each of our four classteachers. This morning, Mr Dean led the whole school in Buddhist meditation!  Each class has then enjoyed a session in the their classroom with each of our four teachers learning about every faith in greater detail through a variety of ways including role play, artefacts, photographs, art and film.

The Lord’s Prayer

 in Class Four / Class Two / RE by

The Lord’s Prayer is common to many Christian’s across the globe so we have been thinking more about it including where it came from and what it means.

Class 2 thought praying was talking to God and that people who believed in God might do it. They explained a few varied ways people stand, sit or kneel to pray. We ordered the Lord’s Prayer and discussed what some unusual words like hallowed  and daily bread mean. Here we are drawing pictures around the phrases so show what we understood by them.

Class 4 explored the Lord’s Prayer differently – finding where it comes from and comparing references to the prayer in the Good News Bible in the books of Matthew and Luke. We looked at the 4 types of prayer that Christians might use – Praising, Asking, Saying Sorry and Thanking.

We then considered some deeper questions linked to phrases in the prayer with many thoughtful and honest responses that are recorded in the class reflection book.

 

Harvest Art

 in Art / Class Two / RE by

In Class 2, we been continuing to develop our drawing skills. We have learnt that to be able to draw, we need to observe closely. This week we used magnifying glasses to observe produce of the land. This combined our RE learning about Harvest of the land and sea, with learning about observational drawing of natural materials in art.

Day for Ukraine

 in RE / SCARF / Whole School by

Thank you for your support on our ‘Day for Ukraine’ last Friday which raised a staggering £452, which included a very generous donation from one pupil’s grandfather.

Every penny will be forwarded to one of the DEC’s (Disaster Emergency Committee) 15 charities to support refugees affected by this terrible crisis in Ukraine.

Next week, every child will be involved in a democratic vote to decide which charity they would like to support, following some input from Class 4 about how the charities that are members of DEC help people in crisis all around the world.

Class 2 Leading Assembly

 in Class Two / RE by

We furthered our understanding of this term’s Christian Value of Compassion with Class 2 leading us in assembly.

In RE they had been exploring the parable The Lost Son. They shared their work with us by reading two retellings and quizzed us on the themes and meaning of the story.

They shared prayers they had written in our reflection time.

Thank you so much Miss Robinson and Class 2.

RE in Class 2

 in Class Two / RE by

This half term in RE we have been learning about the Parable of the Lost Son and the messages that it teaches to Christians. We have developed an understanding of the story in different ways including, drawing, writing and role play. We really enjoyed using our questioning and inference skills to pretend to be the characters from the story as well as professional interviewers. We also thought about how Christians show their love to God. We worked collaboratively to generate and record ideas on a beach ball and then acted out the different ideas whilst practising our throwing and catching skills! We have enjoyed relating the story to our own experiences and linking it to the Christian values of Forgiveness and Compassion.

Experience Church

 in Church / Class Four / Class Three / Class Two / RE / Whole School by

This week, we were treated to another of the “experience” series of events by St. Johns church. We’ve previously enjoyed experience Easter and experience Christmas, this time was “experience Church”.

Arriving at church, we found 6 stations waiting for us – each one representing a part of the church and service that the church provides. These included: the font (welcoming); the pulpit (teaching); the prayer desk (praying); stained glass windows (serving) and the altar (celebrating). At each station, we were encouraged to think about how the church serves all of these different functions. We also took part in a special activity to represent each station.

The sixth and final station was saved until the end. Everyone sat down in front of the great wooden door in the side of the church. Here, we learned that the church shares – part of the job is to share the ideas of Christianity with others. The things that we learn in church are designed to be taken out into the world and shared with others. I wonder if any of our children have shared what they learned with you?

Thanks to everyone from St Johns Church who helped to organise and staff this experience for us – it is greatly appreciated!

Experience Easter 2021

 in Bowfell / Church / RE / Scafell / Skiddaw by

This year, our new outdoor classroom area was the main focus for Experience Easter. Each day this week, classes have taken time to reflect on different stages of the Easter story – The Garden of Gethsemane, Caiaphas’s Courtyard, Golgotha and the Garden Tomb. We finished with planting seeds and colouring butterflies as signs of new life. Thank you to Pam Martin for providing all the content and to Miss Butler and Mrs Haslam for preparing us in school and creating our visual scene settings each morning. St John’s Church is hosting a similar event in the church grounds this week and have extended an open invite all members of the community to Experience Easter for themselves.

Happy Easter everyone!