Starter ideas for the following key questions from the 2011 Agreed
Syllabus:
KS1 Why do we celebrate special times?
KS2 What are the deeper meanings of festivals?
This resource can be used to find out what pupils know about the nativity story, and to introduce the story to them. Notes can be found with some slides; four suggestions for using the resource with KS1 and KS2 can be found on slides 11 and 12.

Starter ideas for the following key questions from the 2011 Agreed
Syllabus:
KS1 Why do we celebrate special times?
KS2 What are the deeper meanings of festivals?
There are four routes through this starter resource. Routes 1 and 2 are more appropriate for KS1; routes 3 and 4 more suited to KS2.

Route 1:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which picture is the Odd One Out and why.
You might get them to talk about the connections between the pictures first; then talk about similarities and differences, before talking about which might be the odd one out. Of course, there are no right answer to the odd one out, so pupils can be encouraged to offer their reasons for their ideas.
Route 2:
For each group of pictures decide what each of these objects/characters might be saying or thinking.
You might narrow this down to given points in the narratives, such as when Gabriel appears to Mary; when Mary and Joseph are on their way to Bethlehem, etc.

Route 3:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which is the most important and why.
You might ask which is the most important
…to Christians
…to the narrative
…at the time of the events
…now
Route 4:
For each group of pictures, ask pupils to decide which object/character you could do without and still keep the meaning of Christmas for Christians.
This develops pupils’ thinking from Route 3 by evaluating the importance of the narratives and contemporary beliefs and practices.
Clearly the key answer is that Jesus is central to Christmas!