COMMITMENT TO ROBUST CPD IN RE
On April 16th 2018, Gillian Georgiou delivered detailed and inspiring training to all staff about the Muslim faith. Such was it's success, that on September 18th 2018 we have booked a similar training session for Judaism.
IN THE NEWS!
Please take a look at John Harrison CE Primary School's article in the latest Diocese RE newsletter for Autumn!
SPIRITED ARTS EXHIBITION
On Saturday 21st October, John Harrison hosted the Local Spirited Arts Exhibition held at Barton Trinity Chapel 1-4pm. The exhibition was an artistic response to the question 'Where is God?' and was a collaboration between New Holland Primary, Castledyke and Barton St Peter's. Many parents, grandparents and church congregation attended and celebrated the hard work of all of our children, after Rev. Nichola kindly agreed to host the event.
Take a look at the John Harrison winners! For the full article (placed in the Diocese News and The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph) see the attached.
RE CURRICULUM
In September 2016, the new RE Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education from East Riding was launched by the SACRE. The units comprise an exciting mix of knowledge and understanding as well as many opportunities for the children to reflect and respond. This update includes more up-to-date references and creative outcomes for the children and is focused on the children putting themselves in the place of people of other faiths, encouraging empathy, respect and tolerance.
http://www.eriding.net/all-ages/religious-education/
To fully support this being successfully launched at John Harrison, we have purchased all the recommended texts within the syllabus.
RE STATEMENT OF ENTITLEMENT
Changes in RE
At John Harrison we are keen to remain at the forefront of national issues in RE and as such, have recently contributed to Commission for RE's 'Call for Evidence'.
'Rethinking RE' is a further project being led by the Diocese and below is a link to some of their most recent thinking.
http://www.reonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/REThinking-RE-A-Midrash-June-2016.pdf
ReThinking RE - A Midrash - June 2016
Gillian Georgiou (Advisor to the Diocese) has published and distributed this is a discussion paper intended for RE advisers and consultants, those involved in RE curriculum design, and those interested in the pedagogy of RE.
The intention of the paper is to provide support and clarity for schools and is interesting and thought provoking read.
We also subscribe to REToday so that we can keep abreast of current national thinking in RE and constantly evolve and improve our classroom practice, as well as being a membre of NATRE.
Commitment to robust CPD in RE
In March 2017, some staff at JHS will begin a 4x session and year long training and resource programme titled 'Understanding Christianity'. This is a new and exciting programme which is at the forefront of enabling a robust and progressive RE programme to be delivered. You can find out more in the link below.
INVESTING IN RE
We also purchased some further supporting RE texts from 'The Well' bookshop in September 2016 in order to encourage wider religious literacy and reading, particularly with boys and the younger children.
On April 24th 2017 we were lucky enough to secure Lat Blaylock (editor of REToday the national and leading RE magazine) to host a full day of 'Creative RE'. After hearing Lat speak on several occasions we wanted all staff, teachers and Ta's alike, to hear his inspirational and creative ideas on delivering high quality RE. John Harrison School therefore asked Lat if he would travel from Leicester in order to deliver this and as such, a whole cluster event for many local schools emerged. The day proved very popular, creating the buzz we wanted for continuing to raise standards in RE and we look forward to implementing his many great ideas.
FOCUS FAITHS
What are our focus faiths at John Harrison Church of England Primary School? The curriculum states that Christianity plus one other faith at KS1 and Christianity plus two other faiths at KS2 should be taught in Religious Education.
In Year 1 and 2, Christianity plus Hinduism is taught from the key content, Year 3 and 4 is Christianity plus Judaism and Year 5 and 6 is Christianity plus Islam. These Abrahamic faiths blend well together sharing many strands which enable the children to deepen their learning before developing their own ideas.
The 4 pictures show all of our superb resources.
GODLY PLAY
At JHS we enrich and develop our Christian teachings through the medium of 'Godly Play'. This is a wonderful way of telling the stories from the Bible and of the life of Jesus Christ in order to firmly root our Christian values in the foundations of the Christian faith.
The stories are told using a wide selection of carefully crafted wooden figures, kindly donated to us from our friends at Holy Trinity Church and children enjoy this very special circle time.
These special items are stored in our Godly Play cupboard which was kindly bought for us with our Church school grant, and provides a central resource for all staff.
Each term one story is told so that each year group enjoys three per year meaning by the end of their school life at JHS, 21 stories have been shared. Not only that, but progression in line with the East Riding syllabus for Christmas and Easter is also enjoyed through Godly Play.
As a school, we believe it is key to enrich the childrens' RE knowledge of the Christian faith as part of our commitment to being a church school and the children themselves will testify to it being one of their favourite times!
BETTER BARROW WEEKEND
JOHN HARRISON SCHOOL APPROACH TO RE
Here at JHS we believe the best RE, is creative RE. The aim is for our children to experience other faiths in an immersive environment, which then allows them to participate in religiously literate, collective conversations.
http://request.org.uk/teachers/teacher-training/2013/10/07/creative-re-is-better-re/
EASTER EGG DECORATING
Our Egg-cellent Eggs!
Easter 2017
This week our children have been working hard to create fabulous decorated eggs and here are our results!
Didn't they do well?
VISITS TO PLACES OF WORSHIP
Can you identify the key features of a synagogue?
CREATIVE RE LESSONS
Examples of some of our recent work.
HOW ARE WE DOING?
Always looking ahead, we are keen to assess how well we are delivering a varied and engaging RE curriculum. To find out, we asked the children at the end of the summer term in 2017 and here is what they said. It goes without saying, that the areas to improve are now on our action plan for 2017/2018.
EASTER WALK 2017
On Wednesday 5th April 2017 , Year 6 delivered another walk through the Easter story. The script and props were all written and devised by the children themselves using a mixture of Bible research, video clips (The Miracle Maker) and art store materials to build this wonderful walk through the Easter story. Six stations were depicted and acted out in total:
The Arrival in Jerusalem
The Temple
The Last Supper
The Garden in Gethsemane
The Crucifixion
The Tomb
Our Collective Worship Leaders again proved invaluable by collecting each class from Foundation to Year 5 at intervals, and introducing what they were about to experience. The children themselves added superb details from their own thoughts including: Eloise playing a sad violin tune to add depth to the crucifixion scene, and a then drum to the tomb scene to represent the earth shaking.
Rev. Girtchen, Rev. Jones and Governors came along to see the children's hard work and enjoy some home baked simnel cake afterwards.
As the photos show, a wonderful experience was had by all. Well done Year 6 and Mrs Crowther!
SAMUEL
John Harrison are pleased to welcome Samuel, our Jewish persona boy who will be able to provide countless opportunities for exciting interaction in class. This will help, not only with personal, social and emotional development but will provide an alternative, engaging and valuable learning tool about religions. The provider, Articles of Faith, is a trusted supplier and we can't wait for Samuel to meet the children! We are also eagerly awaiting Hasan who will show us around his mosque.
ENGAGING RE LESSONS
WILLOW WEAVING
SACRE CONFERENCE
We were delighted to be asked to be asked to provide an input at this years SACRE conference held at the LDC, in order to showcase our hard work and good practice at JHS. As such, we displayed a stall at the marketplace and discussed with other delegates ways in which we have developed and invested in RE. This display included items such as: floor books, new artefacts we have purchased, Godly play resources and photographs of our events like 'Values day' and our 'Easter Walk.'
A CHRISTMAS TRAIL
This year we wanted to help children explore the Christmas story in a more interactive way. Mrs Dobbing and Miss Burton kindly offered to trial the new 'Understanding Christianity' resource we have bought into and below are the results! Each of the 5 stations tell a different part of the Christmas story with thoughtful questions and props provided. Activities beyond this such as: designing your own station, writing a tweet from the viewpoint of a shepherd etc were provided as follow on work with tokens available at each station to take away and prompt discussion.
