Wiltshire RE Starter Stimulus
Starter ideas for the following key questions from the 2011 Agreed Syllabus:
KS1 8 Who is an inspiring person and who
inspires you?
KS2 5 Who was Guru Nanak? Why and how
do people follow him?
These flexible starters offer a way in to thinking about what makes a person
inspiring, and then explores the difference between someone whom you
might admire and someone whom you would spend your life following.
The initial resources are appropriate for both KS1 and KS2 pupils. Slides 410 give differentiated activities.
KS1 8 Who is an inspiring person and who inspires
you?
This starter is designed to support teachers to address
the following learning outcome from p.41 of the 2011
Wiltshire Agreed Syllabus. Teachers will set up learning
opportunities that enable pupils to:
iii. identify some good things people admire in inspiring people /
religious figures and talk about how they might show these same
qualities in their own lives
v. express their own ideas about what can be good and bad about
following others
vi. respond sensitively to questions about who has inspired them,
for example to be thankful, to be generous or to be kind
vii. talk about the feelings and emotions experienced by a leader
being studied when they were called by God to be a leader
KS2 5 Who was Guru Nanak? Why and how do
people follow him?
This starter is designed to support teachers to address
the following learning outcome from p.53 of the 2011
Wiltshire Agreed Syllabus. Teachers will set up learning
opportunities that enable pupils to:
i. identify the qualities they admire in their heroes / role models,
explain why they admire them and how this may influence their own
lives
ii. use religious vocabulary to describe aspects of lives and
teachings of inspiring leaders, giving examples of how these have
influenced the lives of followers
My hero!
Ask pupils to think of a person who inspires them. It might be a parent,
or a teacher, or a family member; it might be a sports person or actor, a
politician or member of the armed forces; it might be another pupil or
someone from history.
Explain to pupils what a kenning is (a compressed form of metaphor,
where an object or person is described in a two-word phrase. E.g.
word spiller = pen; brain squeezer = teacher…)
Ask pupils to create their own series of kennings for their chosen
hero/inspiring person.
The next slide has two examples. Can the pupils guess who they are
talking about?
Two kenning poems…
1. Talk with pupils about their role models. What are the qualities they
admire in these people? How much do they learn from the role
models’ example?
Ask pupils to give specific examples of ways in which these people
make a difference to how they behave.
2. Younger children could choose the top three “heroes” from the
ideas the class has collected. Can you agree a class top three? What
is it about these people that is special?
3. Give older pupils the task in groups to identify the three most
impressive role models, explaining their choices.
4. Would any of the class leave home and friends in order to follow
their heroes? How far would they try to live their lives like their
heroes?
5. If you were to follow a leader, what would that
leader need to be like? Why?
Choose your top five words from the grid below:
For someone to spend their whole life following a
great leader, the leader would need to be…
tall
wise
thoughtful
inspiring
kind
clever
a messenger
of God
old
devoted to
God
fair
good
tidy
powerful
healthy
generous
strong
Information file
Most world religions have a founder – a significant person
who became the figure-head for a new group of followers.
Sikhism was started by Guru Nanak. The religion started at
a time when most people in Northern India were either
Muslim or Hindu. There was clearly something very special
about Guru Nanak that made people give up their whole
lives to follow him. There are around 18 million Sikh people
in the world today who still follow him.
What must Guru Nanak be like, for people to be devoted to
him and his teaching today?
From this image of
Guru Nanak, what
qualities of a great
leader do you think he
possesses? How can
you tell?
The word, Guru, literally means “one who leads from
darkness to light.” What does this mean? What kind of
darkness and light? How might someone be able to
lead others from darkness to light?
There were ten Sikh Gurus in all, and now the Holy
Book, the Guru Granth Sahib, is seen as a living guru.
The Sikh holy book includes this description of the
Guru:
‘The Guru is the ladder, the boat, the
raft by means of which one attains to
God.’
Adi Granth 17
How do the metaphors ‘boat’ ‘raft’ ‘ladder’ reflect the
qualities of a good teacher?
Next steps:
a) Find out the story of Guru Nanak, and give some
examples of how he led people from darkness to light.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/people/n
anak.shtml
b) Guru Nanak’s teaching about God focused on how
important it is
• to remember God,
• to work hard and make an honest living, and
• to be generous with others.
He also said that everyone should be treated equally.
Ask pupils why these guidelines for life would be helpful
for Sikhs. Are any of these guidelines helpful for
people who do not follow a religious faith? What and
why?
c) Guru Nanak founded a new town, Kartarpur,
where his followers could put his teachings about
equality and service into action. Older pupils might
write a short account – a letter from a Sikh disciple
at the time of Guru Nanak to a family member –
explaining why they recommend a move to
Kartarpur.
d) Look at the role models pupils identified at the
start of this unit. Do any of them lead people “from
darkness to light”? If someone is led from darkness
to light, how might they feel about it? Why?