ChurchschoolsEast
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Organising an RE Day
Seven church schools of different sizes came together for a shared day for all their Year 3 pupils led by Barnabas workers and members of the home teams. The smallest school brought 7 pupils, the host school, William de Yaxley VA Junior School, was represented by two classes. 150 children took part in the day.Here are some of the things they learnt from the day - with thanks to William de Yaxley, Stilton, Holme, Elton, Great Gidding, Folksworth and Farcet schools.
The theme of the day was based on the idea of a jigsaw, as the schools jigsawed together, found new friends and thought about community - in a Christian context. The question that was asked was "Who is my neighbour?" Below are some of the photographs from the day which helped answer that important question:
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Organisation - Everything had to be timetabled and organised to the last detail, from labelling the children (with colour-coded labels to show their group) to buying in sufficient water bottles and labelling them too. Children were placed in mixed groups and stayed with their group for the day. The children gelled quickly and many conversations and new friendships were set up. (see left - collecting water bottles) |
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The day started with worship led by the Barnabas team with singing, storytelling and mime. It set the tone for the day with songs such as "Nobody's a nobody" reminding everyone that all of them were different yet special. All children then went on to do four different workshops of approximately 45 minutes. |
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Workshops by the Barnabas team tackled the theme in a variety of ways: One explored how it was the whole community who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem again, using percussion instruments to retell the Bible story from Nehemiah. The second group used juggling, music and puppets and also had children dressing up as characters from the Bible – young and old; famous and forgotten – but each important to God and part of God’s great rescue plan. Another group taught the children a version of the Lord’s Prayer in mime – our Christian family prayer which asks for help to love God, love one another and love ourselves. The fourth group (pictured) acted out with the children the stories of the leper whom nobody liked and the man from Samaria who dared to treat his enemy as a friend – both examples of the jigsaw pieces we so often throw away. |
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The workshops run "in-house" included singing and crafts. Some children made friendship cum prayer bracelets to help them pray for their own close communities. The other craft workshop created individual paper figures from around the world which were then joined together in a circle of friendship and caring. |
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Throughout the day children used jigsaw sheets to collect autographs from their new friends from other schools and find out something special about each one of them. One amazed young man told his friend "I've found THREE other Adams!" He was obviously used to being the one and only! |
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The day ended with a final act of worship, bringing together all that had been learnt - here those who had learnt to mime the Lord's Prayer share this with the others. Other children at the end of the day commented on how they had learned lessons about working together, about loving even our enemies, and how building Jerusalem‘s walls needed everyone to play their part. |
Would the schools which took part do it again? The answer was a resounding "Yes!" and plans to do so are already underway.
The input from the Barnabas team was a key feature of this particular day - they also sent the participating schools materials which could be used as in-school follow-up. Barnabas are part of BRF - the Bible Reading Fellowship - and you can find out about them and their days for schools at http://www.barnabasinschools.org.uk/
ChurchschoolsEast
supports Church School Improvement in the Dioceses of Ely, Norwich and St Edmundsbury & Ipswich
Copyright © ChurchschoolsEast, 2008, 2009 - Page last updated
7 July, 2010
: Web design, Chris Wall, 2008 , 2009