Religious Education

RE Curriculum In Action

Our older pupils have looked closely at the religion of Islam recently. They were visited by local Imam Mohammad Rahman. His role is that of a chaplain to muslims within the community. He told us all about his beliefs and talked to the class about Islam.

Our pupils asked some interesting questions based upon what they already had found out. This included:

Do you pray early in the morning? Do you have a prayer like the Lord's prayer? How do you devote your life to Allah? Do you have a religious book? Why do you fast? What happens if you miss prayer? How many visit the Mosque daily?

We were very interested and Mohammad invited us to visit him at the Mosque to continue our study.

Thanks to all who could come along and see the children at Sugley Church or at school. Our pupils in LKS2 were fantastic. With very few rehearsals, they have all put together a wonderful liturgy with the help and support of Father Allen. We were very proud of the whole phase. Well done Lower Key Stage Two.

We have learned that Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar. It celebrates the resurrection from the dead of Jesus, three days after he was executed.

After Jesus was crucified on the Friday (now known as Good Friday), his body was taken down from the cross, and buried in a cave tomb.

The tomb was guarded by Roman Soldiers and an enormous stone was put over the entrance, so that no-one could steal the body.

On the Sunday, Mary Magdalene, followed later by some of Jesus' disciples visited the tomb and found that the stone had been moved, and that Jesus' body had gone.

Jesus himself was seen that day by Mary and the disciples, and for forty days afterwards by many people. His followers realised that God had raised Jesus from the dead. Christians call this the Resurrection.

Across the world the Easter message is recounted by Christians. We enjoyed, acting, singing and presenting in this way at Sugley.

Father Alun came to talk to us today about Christian paintings as part of our 'Faith through Art' topic. We looked at lots of paintings; discussing what the artist had represented and the feelings that they had conveyed about their faith.

We considered the images depicted and explored how the artist felt at that time - Father Alun attempted to deepen our thoughts through questions and  wide variety of paintings and artistic works.

Father Alun came in to show our KS2 pupils the colours he wears in church at different times across the year.

He told us about the colours and why different minister wear different types of garments.

We also thought about the end of advent and we talked about how the church has a different focus during a particular time of year.

We thought about the news around the world and what was going on in school.

Father Alun is coming back soon to tell year 6 about Anglo Saxon scripts as part of their topic.

The Hindu Temple

LKS2 visited the Hindu Temple. The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hindu Temple exists to provide a place of worship and practice religion to Hindu Families living in the North East of England from Tyne & Wear, Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland.

The Hindu Temple in Newcastle Upon Tyne has been running since the late 70s when group of Hindu families started to worship from a terraced house in Newcastle Upon Tyne. In 1982 the Temple was relocated to the current address at 172 West Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE4 9QB.

Hinduism is the world's third largest religion with the vast majority of Hindus - 940 million - living in India.

Respected Pandit Sh. Bal Krishan Gautam ji is the Priest in the temple since 2006 - conducting religious rituals and activities in the appropriate Hindu Vedic manner.

Most Hindus revere a body of texts as sacred scripture known as the Veda, and most Hindus draw on a common system of values known as dharma. Hinduism originated around the Indus Valley near the River Indus in modern day Pakistan. About 80% of the Indian population regard themselves as Hindu.

Most Hindus believe in a Supreme God, whose qualities and forms are represented by the multitude of deities which emanate from him. Hindus believe that existence is a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, governed by Karma. Hindus believe that the soul passes through a cycle of successive lives and its next incarnation is always dependent on how the previous life was lived. Hindus celebrate many holy days, but the Festival of Lights, Diwali is the best known.

Harvest Festival

We have looked at different aspects of the Harvest in school. We began by thinking about the way our donatations to the 'Peoples Kitchen' are distributed to homeless people who need a warm meal. Thank you for the amazing contribution.

We also looked at the way we produce our own food - Mrs Phillipson made 'Waverley Soup' with pupils and produce from our garden.

We are lucky to have plenty of food to eat - some countries are not as fortunate and we have learned about children in Africa that have to rely on aid.

Judaism

Year 6 visited the synagogue in Gosforth. It is important that we learn about the beliefs of others - to achieve this Mrs Sample took her class along to have a look at the traditions of Judaism.

It is a tradition that the boys cover their heads when visiting. The yarmulke, meaning skullcap in Yiddish, is a beanie that covers a Jewish man's head. The Hebrew term for it is Kippah. Jews cover their heads during prayer, eating and studying as a sign of respect toward God, who is above you. Religious Jews will wear it all the time. Covering the head is more of a custom than a commandment. We looked at the dress and objects around the sacred place. We saw that a synagogue has a space for prayer with an aron kodesh, a holy ark to house the sacred Torah scrolls. Where possible, this will be placed so that when facing it, one is facing towards the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Today, synagogues vary as widely as the personalities of the community they house. Some feel very formal, others less so. Some have benches, others pews, still others movable chairs. In some, the reading desk is in the centre of the prayer space facing the aron kodesh, in others it is in the front facing the congregation. Some have stained glass windows, some organs. In Reform synagogues, all the congregation sit together so there is no physical separation of the seating.

We have looked at the holocaust in our work this term and within the UK, there is a common custom of having a memorial of the Shoah. It is an important part of UK Jewish tradition.

Six million represents the Jewish people lost during the Holocaust (Shoah).

Although synagogues are an important part of contemporary Jewish life, there are many communities that exist without one. They may use a variety of premises to hold their functions, from members’ houses to hired halls.

Rememberance

We shall remember them...

Today we commemorated those who have fallen in service of our country. We have families within our school who are currently serving in the armed forces. Today we held an assembly and silence to pay our respects to those who fell. We recall the visit we made to Ypres in Flanders recently where we laid a wreath on behalf of our school. We began by reading the words of Wilfrid Owen.
 

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!—

We then looked at some art work depicting life in the Great War trenches.

We then looked at the story of a soldier and thought about his family might have felt.

Langemark cemetery - in a very small area no bigger than our dinner hall is buried the remains of 35,000 German soldiers of the Great War.

Tynecot is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world - we held a ceremony to commemorate our fallen soldiers.

Waverley and Newburn Manor pupils remembered those who did not return on both sides.

The Hindu Temple 

Lower KS2 visited the Hindu Temple.

They were told all about the temple and they asked some very interesting questions.

They were given the chance to dress up in Hindu clothing and had a go at the drumming.

All of the children really enjoyed their time at the temple and were very interested to learn all about another religion.

The guide complimented our school on how well behaved and interested we were.

Well done LKS2!

Reverend Robson came to school to tell us about the period of Lent. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent.

The Christian season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.

The date of Ash Wednesday varies each year according to the date of Easter. It is always six-and-a-half weeks before Easter.

Ash Wednesday is a Christian festival. It marks the beginning of six and a half weeks of repentance and fasting in preparation for the most important Christian festival of Easter.

Ashes are something that are left when something is burned. For Christian ashes are a symbol of being sorry for things they have done wrong and want to get rid of forever.

For Christians, the marking on the forehead with ash marks the commitment to Jesus Christ and God. They wanted to show God that they were sorry for the wrong things they had done in the past year.

Many Christians will attend a religious service where the ashes are blessed by the church leader, and placed on their forehead.

Christians believe this marks the physical and spiritual beginning of a personal Lent season in which 40 days of repentance will begin leading up to the celebration of Easter Sunday.

In churches the priest first burns the palm

that have been kept from last year's Palm Sunday and then mixes the ashes of these crosses with holy water (which has been blessed) to make a greyish paste. When people go to church on Ash Wednesday, the priest dips his thumb in the paste and uses it to make the sign of the cross on each person's forehead.

Happy Birthday Sugley

Mr Roberts took his class down to see Reverend Robson and to look at the flowers displayed in the church as part of the church's 175th birthday.

Reverend Robson told us all about the history of the church and the children asked some interesting questions. Ik was brilliant at asking questions as usual.

We signed the visitors book and we all had a celebration snack in the church hall - this building was once the school and Mr Outterside scrutinised the registers from over 100 years ago.