Pause Day—World Religions
We had our second Pause Day of the academic year and what a success it was! Pause Days are an exciting initiative which give schools an opportunity to engage with high level thinking and reflection during an ‘off-timetable’ RE day. The day contributes to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development and provides a ‘space’ to enhance and deepen pupils’ understanding.
The focus for this Pause Day was World Religions and had a number of events running throughout the day to support the children’s understanding and experiences. World Religion Day is held on the third Sunday of every year with the aim to promote interfaith understanding. The Bahá’í faith, began the celebration and believe that all religions have things in common and have many similarities, and to teach that all religions should be respected to unite all to live harmoniously. The six major religions of the world are Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Sikhism.
The Kerith Church came to visit Reception to Year 3 to experience prayer spaces. Each class learnt about World Religion Day, other faiths, practices and traditions and some fun facts. Each year group, had the opportunity to explore a resources box containing artefacts relating to one faith and then had the opportunity to share their views, understanding and experiences of their faith, including those who don’t have a faith. Both children and adults shared their own religious and non-religious beliefs and practices with the rest of the class fostering understanding and respect through open and honest conversations.
It was important for children to understand diversity within each of the religions and how it is practiced across the World. For example, what Christianity looks like in the Western countries more often than not differs across the globe because of cultural and denominational reasons.
