Welcome!
This pack has been designed to support visits from primary schools to your
place of worship.
The pack has been written by the Enfield and Barnet Religious Education
Consultants, in collaboration with leaders of places of worship.
A consultation workshop was held with leaders of faith groups, from Enfield
and Barnet, where experiences, expertise and good practice were discussed with
regard to previous visits from primary schools. The feedback, ideas and
recommendations have been incorporated in to this pack to support successful
visits from primary schools to your place of worship.
Religious Education in Enfield
The ‘Enfield Agreed Syllabus’ states the statutory entitlement to Religious
Education for all pupils in non-denominational schools in the Borough of
Enfield.
It was written by members of The Agreed Syllabus Conference, who represent
teachers associations, religious communities and the local authority. The
syllabus introduces children at Key Stage 1 (years 1 & 2) and Key Stage 2
(years 3, 4, 5 & 6) to carefully selected religion specific ‘Programmes of Study’
for Christianity and the five main principle religions in Britain: Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.
Religious Education in Barnet
The Barnet Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education has at Foundation & Key
Stages 1& 2 material on places of worship. A series of Key Questions &
Concepts consider the importance of these places to the individual faith
communities. All children will study a number of places of worship in their time
at primary school & it is hoped that as part of this work visits will be arranged
to a number of local places of worship. This guide will support the
arrangements of those visits.
The Importance of Visits to Places of Worship
Visits and visitors to schools help to promote public understanding of, and
confidence in, the work of schools in Religious Education. The Agreed Syllabus
encourages visits to places of worship and visitors to the classroom which
enrich the provision of RE in our schools. Visits and visitors also contribute
enormously to community cohesion.
How can this pack support primary school visits?
In this pack you will find all the information you need to lead an informative,
successful, interactive and exciting session for visiting primary schools,
including resource ideas and activities.
The pack includes information about what children will have already learned
before the visit and outlines objectives and pupil outcomes for all units taught.
This information should support you in ensuring any talks or activities are
pitched at the correct level for the children.
Contents of this pack
Below is a list of the contents of this pack and how the documents included
could support you in preparing and planning for a visit from a primary school.
Scheme of work framework - This grid summarises
the units of work for each religion, which term they are
taught in and to which year group; a guide to which year
group should visit you in which term.
Key Stage 1 (KS1) programme of study – Teaching objectives to be taught to
year 1 and year 2 for your religion.
Key Stage 2 (KS2) programme of study – Teaching objectives to be taught to
years 3, 4, 5 and 6 for your religion.
Trips and visitors grid – A summary of which year group should be visiting
which place of worship and in which term. It also summarises opportunities to
invite visitors in to the classroom.
Units of work – All units (as outlined in the scheme of work framework) taught
at KS1 & KS2 for your religion. Each unit details learning objectives, outcomes
and teaching activities for a series of lessons. These can support your place of
worship in ensuring your activities and talks are at the level of the children and
are both appropriate and relevant to the unit.
Planning ahead – things to think about before a visit takes place.
Resource & Activity ideas! – Lots of ideas to support you and your team in
ensuring visits to your place of worship are informative, fun, and interactive!
Preparation before a visit.
The success of a visit will depend on the amount of planning done before the
class/year group arrive. Below is a list of things that you could think about:
• what would you like children to get out of a visit to your place of
worship?
• how will the visit contribute to the children’s understanding of the
building and how it is used by the community?
• how many children can you accommodate at one time? Could better
learning take place if year groups with 2 classes or more come at
different times/days?
• Has the school made a preliminary visit? This serves many purposes e.g.
to prepare a risk assessment, discuss possible activities that you may have
planned and to set agreed an agreed time frame. If you have a worksheet
for the children to complete, this could be handed over to the teacher to
photocopy for each class, which they then bring along with them on the
day.
• Think about sending out letters to local schools inviting them to visit
you. It is a great way to show you welcome school visits!
Most importantly, think about:
What learning has
already taken
place in the
classroom?
What resources
will I need for
this?
What will the
children already
know?
How can I extend the
children’s
learning/knowledge
further?
Resource Ideas!
• Prepare worksheets that encourage children to look carefully at your
place of worship. You could take photos and incorporate these in to a
small booklet. Children could then go an organised ‘treasure hunt’ of
symbols and their importance and meanings.
• Recruit members of your congregation/community to assist with
visits. This allows children to work in smaller groups. Groups could
be rotated so they experience a range of short interactive activities.
This keeps it lively and interesting!
• Have a ‘school box’. This could include everything you need to have to
hand for a visit e.g. worksheets, pencils, artefacts. Once made up, you can
just ‘grab & go’, reducing planning and preparation time for future visits.
• Do you have a notice board? Most school visits will focus on how the
community use the building for things other than worship. A notice
board is a great place to start, as it shows all the exciting things going
on at your place of worship!
• Will you provide follow up work to do back in the classroom?
• Re-enact! A great way to grab children’s attention is to re-enact an
element of your faith e.g. how you pray or how you welcome a baby
in to your religion.
• Think senses! Smells, sounds and things children can hold (unbreakable)
always interest children e.g. burning incense.
• Make a short video of areas that children may not get to see and post
on your website. Children could watch it before arriving and prepare
questions.
• Prepare a ‘school pack’ for teachers to download from your website. This
could include any pre-visit work and post-visit activities that you would
like the children to do. It could also include any worksheets that teachers
can copy before arriving and a risk assessment.
And finally! Remember, the key to a successful visit is to ensure you are
communicating at the level of the child, reinforcing/extending their learning
and keeping it interactive!