School Religious Education days

Our local primary school regularly holds days with collapsed timetables to enrich the children's education.

The idea to hold such a day for Religious Education (R.E.) came out of discussions between the head, the R.E. co-ordinator and the foundation (church) governors who wanted to give the children an extended period of time to explore some R.E. themes in greater depth.

The children were organised into five groups with about 30 children in each group. Each group included children across the seven different year groups from Reception (4-5 year olds) to Year 6 (10-11 year olds). We felt that this set up would give the older children the opportunity to develop their own understanding and also enable them to support and encourage the younger ones during the activities.

Each day began with an introduction in the school hall before splitting into groups to rotate around the different areas. We tried to offer a variety of activities that included art, music, drama and time for discussion. The children spent about 45 minutes in each area: one before break, two between break and lunch and two after lunch.

The days were brought together with a final act of worship in the school hall.

R.E. days resources:

Worship Day: An R.E. day for the whole school focused on Worship and Prayer. Including different ways of praying, creating worship spaces, music in worship, confession and intercession: different kinds of prayer, making symbols.

Bible day: A whole school R.E day focusing on the big story of the Bible; the books of the Prophets; how the Bible came down to us; the Bible in worship and how Christians use the Bible today.