Exploring diversity of beliefs including non-religious philosophical convictions

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• Context
• Why did you choose this focus?
• What changes did you make?
• What was the impact of the changes?
• What influenced you?
• Top three takeaways

Llanfechain Church in Wales Voluntary Controlled school is a small school which holds a significant role in the community it serves. The village has a population of around 500 people and is situated in the north of the county of Powys in rural Mid Wales.

The focus of the project was around exploring diversity of beliefs including non-religious philosophical convictions.

The class teacher with responsibility for leading the younger year groups, identified a general lack of understanding of faith and beliefs other than Christianity. There was little opportunity for learners to explore diversity from a “real life” standpoint. The learners were able to access information about other faiths and non-religious philosophical convictions from secondary sources such as the internet or storybooks, however there was limited opportunity to access any information first-hand.

The starting point was the Church in Wales ‘Taith Adfent Project’. This was used to support the concept of ‘welcome’. The Christian Nativity was used as a stimulus to explore the narrative of Mary and Joseph and their newborn baby. The learners explored the narrative of the family fleeing Bethlehem to find refuge and safety.

Through the Religion Values and Ethics sub-lens of Relationship and Responsibility the class explored the different relationships in the Nativity and then moved from this to explore their own relationships. They thought about what helps them live with others.

As a small school the children interact well when working together with their peers throughout the school. Weekly Nurture Sessions held each Friday afternoon encourage the learners to explore different values; such as confidence, compassion and perseverance. We also reflected on the value of ‘Peace’ and how this can begin with each one of us.

Through the sub-lens of Identity and Belonging the learners explored ‘What makes people who they are?’ They were encouraged to explore similarities and differences. The class worked on an activity where they looked at different shoes and considered who the shoes belonged to. This provided an opportunity to explore people and places the shoes may have been worn. The children considered the assumptions we can make about people. We asked questions about whose shoes are these? This helped us to think critically about how people can be different and what makes us all unique. Through this the children begin to be aware of how they are shaped by the people and communities around them.

The learners in Criw Cymraeg set a whole school task where we shared the importance of our Welsh identity and how this can look different for different people. The learners created ‘Croeso’ posters offering a warm welcome to everyone who visits and joins our school community.

There is now a greater understanding of working from where the children are, to how they need to move forward. Focusing on their local community then widening that to a more global understanding of community.

We are moving away from a complete focus on Christianity to looking at different religions and non-philosophical convictions. We are planning to invite a variety of different people to our Nurture sessions, where the common values can be explored with people of different faiths and beliefs including Humanism. We would like to visit various places of worship, which would support understanding and a growing awareness of diversity and how their experiences of belonging can be similar to, and different from, others.

Reading the book 'Reforming RE', edited by Mark Chater gave me the confidence to think about how the context of our small school is important. Using this as a starting point to explore what diversity looks like in our community and how we are all unique. The importance of helping the children to recognise this, and using this as a starting point to learn about people of different faiths and beliefs. It also ensured a focus on how the values we share can help us to treat one another with compassion.

1. Using the Church in Wales RVE Supporting guidance helped focus the work we were doing
2. Realising the children could work with challenging concepts
3. Ensure that there is an opportunity to explore diversity within our communities, inviting people with lived experience into our setting