Inclusive RE
“The full range of ability, belief and
family background”
Pupils with
Special
Educational
Needs
(SEN)
Gifted and
Talented
pupils
(G&T)
Pupils who
are victims
of prejudice
Pupils with
particular
preferred
learning
styles
Religious education:
inclusive, open hearted
and broad minded
Pupils with
English as an
additional
language
(EAL)
Pupils from
minority
religions
Inclusion:
RE is for
all pupils
Mobile or
transient
pupils
Pupils who
are atheist
or agnostic
Disaffected
pupils
Children
who are
looked
after
Pupils of
both
genders
Inclusion through...
• Personalised learning strategies
• Curriculum content selection
• Emphases on self-expression skills and
activities
• Support staff (SEN / G&T)
• Differentiated provision: task, outcome,
grouping
• Attention to the idea that ‘every child matters’
Some inclusion issues for RE in 2012...
• Does inclusive RE just
keep adding categories?
...scientology next
anyone?
• How can RE include the
‘–ish’ alongside the many
‘-isms’
• Boundless inclusivity for
the classroom, but what
boundaries does
practicality place?
• Is Humanism (capital ‘H’)
a sufficiently diverse way
of representing the nonreligious?
• Do we still need to play
the ‘internal diversity’
card more - and more
often?
• “Cake slicing” is not a
“numbers game” – but
what are the rules?
• Who’s marginalised by
the current practice?
Al Fatihah – the first surah of the Qur’an
“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the
worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgment.
You do we worship, and Your aid we seek,
Show us the straight way,
The way of those on whom You have bestowed Your
Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who
go not astray.”
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What Muslim beliefs
did you observe in
the quotes?
What might be the
impact of these
beliefs? How might
they make a
difference to life?
•Is one
•If you believe god is
one, then you would…
•If you believe all is
powerful then you
might…
•Is powerful
•Beyond describing
•Voice that guides us
•Has no partners
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How do these beliefs
reflect the teaching
of Surah 1?
(We reproduce by kind permission)
Ahmed Moustapha’s
excellent image ‘The
attributes of Divine
Perfection’.
This image is used in this
work to support and
develop pupils’
understanding of Muslim
concepts of God. It
incorporates 99 geometric
shapes, each written with
one of the beautiful names
of Allah, thus expressing an
Islamic understanding of
the divine without making
an image.
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The Kaaba at Makkah:
empty of any image
since the time of the
Prophet, but still full,
as is the whole
universe, of the
presence of Allah.
The centre of Islamic
faith on earth: a billion
face it in prayer.
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Task for pupils:
• Work in a group of four. Don’t forget the 99 Beautiful Names
of Allah ~ they are a source for understanding Islamic
theology
• Each person: Take an example of the Islamic beliefs about God
you have studied, and create a visual representation of the
belief, using Islamic rules (calligraphy, but no representation
of persons)
• Compare the four examples in your group, and write a short
joint commentary on these: how do they show what Muslims
believe about God?
• What might a Muslim leader say about your work?
• The simple model here is “explore the creativity of others –
engage creatively myself”
• See three examples below
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•
“I have worked with the concept that “we
are created in the Image of God” and that
the 99 names or attributes of God are
reflected within us. So when the viewer
looks at the “99 names” s/he sees the Self
reflected in the mirror, and is reminded of
the 99 attributes within one’s own self.”
Yasmin Kathrada:
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Muslim artist Ahmed Mater
uses iron filings and a
magnet block to create the
swirling effect of this work of
art.
Is it Ahmed Moustapha, or
Yasmin Kathrada, or Ahmed
Mater, who has best
expressed the Muslim
understanding of God /
Allah?
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The Holy Name of Allah
Jade, 8
Jade was inspired to make this by
using a repeater pattern from the
ICT equipment. Muslims are
inspired by the holy name of Allah,
Lord of the World. The painting uses
Islamic rules, and doesn’t picture
the divine.
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God is Everywhere in
the World
Shadan, 12
“My painting is called
God is everywhere in
the world! I chose to
do a world and a book
on top and that book
represents the Quran
(or Bible). The bottom
of the world
represents dirt: the
thoughts of people
that don’t have any
religion, the thoughts
of people that don’t
believe in God. At the
top of the world there
is a light (coming from
the holy writings) and
that light is growing to
show that God is
growing.”
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Frameworks for reflection: tears, question marks,
leaves and lightbulbs: inclusion in practice
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Rainbows
Colours
and
diversity.
Promises
Hope
through
trials
Natural
beauty
Working on the Noah story,
children finish their study
with a rainbow outline on
card, by writing ‘7 Hopes
for a Better World’ (for
myself, my family, my class,
my town, my country, my
world and one more) in
pairs. They collage the
colours. The rainbows are
cut out and hung from coat
hangers on the classroom
ceiling as mobiles.
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Ali and Sophie, (both 9)
made a rainbow of
different religions:
“We think all the
colours make up the
rainbow, and all the
religions make up God’s
earth”
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
• Jacob is 14,
from Ashfield
Special School:
“My rainbow
has seven
colours. I am
hoping my mum
has a good day
and my cat is
safe”
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Stars
After work on the Muslim
Small
way of life, including the
lights, big idea of ‘the moon to light
the way and the star to
darkness
guide’, pupils write 5
Mystery
people who are their
and
‘guiding lights’ on to a
distance
display star, and talk in
circle time about who
Being a
they chose and why. Or
star
using Jesus’ sayings about
Wonder
the light of the world,
pupils choose the people
and
they think light up the
curiosity
world today.
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Stars
• Children drew on their stars the five things
they like about Christmas, and hung them on
a fence in the grounds. They wanted to hang
them up much higher, and that will happen
‘next time’
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
”The reflective activities were
undertaken in a genuine and thought
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today
2012 by the children”
way
Tear drops
At the end of a unit on why
people suffer, pupils take a
big blue cut-out tear drop,
and write a meditation or
reflection or prayer (let
Sadness
them choose) on the theme
Suffering
‘Who helps the suffering?’
Bitterness
Pre-print onto it a quote
from Jesus (‘Come to me all
‘A good
you weary and I will give you
cry’
rest…’) or the Buddha
(‘Compassion for any living
Tragedy
being takes a step to a
better world…’) and they
will think about the meaning
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
as they work.
Your Request Has Been Denied By Penny
'Your request…' represents the feeling that
God, if he exists, is unreachable and
hidden.
At a time when we need God most, such as
the peril the girl is facing, we reach out. No
one grabs our hand. The masses of paper
falling from the sky are a suggestion that
our prayers never reach anyone. Cast up to
the sky they fall back down again.
The phrase 'your request has been denied',
written on every piece of paper, is a
suggestion that I can’t reach God. I feel
there is no personal bond, no personal
response to my prayers. All we receive is a
weak cover up of the truth, and automated
message: your request to be happy, to be
alone, to do well, to get better, has been
denied. If this is what happens, I feel it is
very unlikely that God exists. This is what
my paint and ink expresses. The different
coloured lines represent movement, the
different feelings the girl experiences
during each prayer, each denied request.
Hands
Touching
Connecting
with others
Caring and
helping
Work
Love in
action
Use a ‘drawn round’ hand to
write five words that show care,
mutuality, work: What sums up
Mother Teresa’s work for others?
What five things would Muslims
say Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
did best? What five things can
people in conflict do to build
peace? Or write inside the hand
words that describe ‘how I see
myself’ and round the outside
some ‘ways other people see
me’.
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
A mobile phone
Roles of angels in the first
revelation of the Holy Qur’an and
the Christmas story have been
Messengers
explored in stories and thinking.
and
Pupils take a mobile phone
messages
illustration, and create 5
messages to the human race,
Angels
from the angel of mercy, the
Prayer
angel of good news, the angel of
death, the angel of hope and the
Communicat
fallen angel – this expresses
ion
visions of life in a reflective and
interesting way. What would the
angels say to the humans today?
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012
Window
If eyes are the windows of
the mind, what do you see
Openness
when you look in? If you
Vision
could look in the window of
heaven, what would you see
Escape
there? What about the
Looking
window on the stable at
Bethlehem, or into the
outwards
widow when Gabriel spoke
Light and
to Mary? Give a nice window
clarity
outline to pupils for their
ideas.
Nicki is 12 Dark and Light
“I got this idea from the thought that God is always there even when everything
seems to be going wrong. When life’s hard, God is there to help you through. The
girl crying in the dark symbolizes how alone and helpless she feels. The mist and
cloud outside the window, the thin moon and very few stars show how little hope
she has left. The small window shines a tiny bit of life into the room, but the
window shape on the floor, from the light, is huge and bright, it is God’s light,
watching over you, to give you hope again.”
What will you do with the 23 frameworks
for reflection?
• Which do you use?
• Which are new ideas for you?
• Could you use these to inject 15 minutes
reflection into many more RE lessons?
• Can you use them to sharpen ideas about AT2
learning from religion?
• Do they help build inclusion?
Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012