Identity and belonging - What makes us who we are as people, communities and citizens living in a diverse world

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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

With thanks to South East Wales Education Achievement Service (EAS) for funding this place.

We are a large primary school in the city of Newport. Our school motto is Living and Learning in Harmony.

This is central to the work that we do in our school. We have children from a wide range of different countries with over 40 different home languages in our school. We celebrate diversity and value the rich cultural influences that our families bring to our school community.

As a school our aim is to provide Equity, Excitement and Excellence in all we do. We are passionate about providing all of our pupils with the best start to their education and believe that creating excitement through real life learning experiences and pupil led learning is crucial in engaging our pupils. We strive for excellence in all that we do at Maindee Primary School and recognise that strong relationships make the foundations for excellent teaching and learning. We work hard to develop positive attitudes to learning that our children will take forward with them throughout their lives 40% of our learners are entailed to free school meals and 91% of our learners speak English as an additional language.

As a school we decided we wanted to focus on the sub lens - Identity and belonging - What makes us who we are as people, communities and citizens living in a diverse world.

We have always celebrated diversity and the rich cultural values that our families bring to the school community, but felt that we wanted to expand upon this and involve families and our local community more. The local area of the school is very diverse, with lots of different cultures living together, it was felt that there was, at times, a lack of understanding and tension between families and the community, which was then having an impact in school.

We wanted to find a way to reinforce our school motto ‘living and learning in harmony’ and our core value of ‘PEACE’ both in our school and in the local community.

When looking at the learning journey we wanted our children to take we felt that we could develop our thinking around the ‘what matters’ statements ‘Events and human experience are complex, and are perceived, interpreted and represented in different ways’ and ‘Human societies are complex and diverse, and shaped by human actions and beliefs’.

We wanted children and our local community to develop an awareness of faith identity and how this is similar or different to their own, but from this how we can use this awareness to all live together in harmony, valuing and respecting each other’s beliefs.

We started off by developing a ‘peace plan’, this is a yearly calendar that recognises significant events in different religions and also for those who have non- religious beliefs. This then informs our planning and what we celebrate and recognise throughout the year. Initially this started off as individual peace plans for each year group, however as we progressed it was felt that we needed a whole school peace plan with some non-negotiables and then individual classes could also add to it to reflect the learners in their classes.

We wanted families to be fully involved in this process, so at the start of the academic year, each year group held a parental engagement session where we invited the parents in and discussed with them what they would like the year to look like, what was important to them as a family, what we needed to observe and celebrate, and then also what skills they could offer us, and how could they be involved in this. This allowed us to focus on what makes people who they are. It enabled learners to show an awareness of who they are and that they are similar and different from others. We were able to explore faith and compare the different faiths within our school, celebrating and recognising everyone who forms part of our school community.

We wanted to make sure that a child’s journey through Maindee consisted of a range of experiences and that they were not always recognising or celebrating the same event every year. We decided that we would all always recognise significant events - as set out by the non-negotiables, however this could be something as simple as discussing the event during class reflection time and / or sending a card home. Then individual year groups would take responsibility for two events a year, in which parents would be invited in for a parental engagement session, whether it be a concert, a workshop, or even activities leading up to a bigger event. For example, Year Four celebrated Christmas and International Romani Day and Year Six recognised Remembrance Day and celebrated Eid Ul Fitr.

As we have continued to embed the peace plan, learners are now developing their own awareness of faith identity and how this is similar to, or different from, their own faith, and also within other faiths. Throughout the year we reflected on what we do well within the school and felt that we were in a position to apply to become a school of sanctuary. A School of Sanctuary educates and raises awareness about different cultures and experiences. We felt this was really important to us, and enabled us to use our knowledge of different faiths and the experiences we have had, to embrace new children in our school, making sure that they are welcome, regardless of background, skin colour, religion etc.

By being a School of Sanctuary, we are able to make a positive change in how we and everybody in our community welcomes and provides safety for those seeking sanctuary. Sanctuary means providing a safe place for everybody. We have several pupil groups within the school, one of which are the ‘Young Interpreters’. This is a group of pupils who speak some of the many different languages spoken in our school. The Young Interpreters also work with our Peace Pals who are another pupil group whose aim is to share the school’s core value of ‘PEACE’.

Peace Pals are pupils from year 5 and 6 who represent some of the many religions we have in our school. They work with outside agencies and faith representatives to share key messages of peace throughout the school and the community. It was important to us that the children and community recognised that every religion and belief all shared the same key message as set out by peace mala’s golden rule - ‘Treat others as you would wish them to treat you.’ It has been very important to us that we recognise and celebrate everything we do, and so having been awarded our Bronze accreditation for peace mala, we are now applying for our Silver award. Through this we have been able to identify and evaluate relationships, recognising our own contributions to society, and how we can spread this further. It is enabling the children to discuss the significance of belonging in their own and others lives, ensuring that everyone belongs and is welcome in our school.

Initially we worked with The Onyx Link Foundation to deliver assemblies, these were led by representatives from different faiths and also representatives who do not have a faith, but their own non-religious convictions. This was really useful as it allowed and continues to allow children to explore the interactions between a range of faiths and societies and the contributions they make to our school and our local community.

During these assemblies representatives shared what their religion was about, and their key messages which the children recognised, all interlinked back to peace, and how we should all recognise and value each other's belief.

At the end of these assemblies, children were given the opportunities to ask a range of questions to the different representatives. This was really important to us as we felt that they were able to recognise how different religions impact on human life and shape a persons beliefs. We have been fortunate to work with a wide range of representatives, including but not limited to Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Ba’hai, Buddhist, Humanist and Wiccan.

After reflecting on the sessions, we felt that the children benefited and would continue to benefit from the opportunity to develop their own beliefs and how we could work with others through questioning, we felt that the question and answer sessions during the assemblies were where the children were able to develop their own beliefs further and the understanding of others. As a result we wanted to develop a more interactive approach to the sessions. It was then decided that the Peace Pals would interview the leaders and that this would be shared across the school via video link, so that all classes could be involved. However, after the first session we realised that technology was an issue and that some classes were finding it difficult to engage with the conversations, and so the decision was made to record the interviews. They could then be played in the classes at a later date and any questions raised would then be sent to the representatives, who then answer them. Through this we were really able to develop our understanding of different faiths.

As the interviews have been recorded, children are really able to reflect on the different religions. There has been much more opportunity for discussion and opportunities for reflection. Following this class reflection areas and books have been set up, which are being utilised throughout the week. Children are able to explore how different religious and non-religious philosophies are linked and use this to form their own opinions whilst respecting those of others.

In turn this is allowing children to show an awareness of diversity within the community and that their experiences are similar to, and different from, others.

We worked closely with The Onyx Link Foundation in order to share our core value of peace and how all religions and beliefs also hold very similar key messages. We have worked closely with Pam Evans from peace mala to recognise and celebrate what we do, and also identify our next steps in our journey sharing our core value of peace.

The RVE network been really useful to share good practice with colleagues and then use these ideas to develop our key values and how this fits in with the RVE sub-lens of identity and belonging.

1. Involving representatives of different faiths so that the children can develop their understanding of different religions by asking questions that are relevant and important to them. Doing this in smaller groups from the start which allows a much more personal and interactive approach
2. Representation is a fundamental right. “You can’t be, what you can’t see.” Seek out the role models within your community, if children can see people they know, respect and can identify with, they begin to understand the importance of belonging in people’s lives including their own
3. Provide opportunities for children to reflect on their own beliefs and how they contribute to society, culture, well-being and their faith journey