Spirituality at Warmingham

A Caring Christian Family Where We Grow Together
Let Your Light Shine ~ Matthew 5:16

To talk about spirituality is essentially to talk about something which is beyond words. To make spirituality more accessible to every member of our school community we have chosen to define spirituality as:

‘Spirituality is not something we can see; it is something we feel inside our hearts.
It is the love we have for ourselves, each other and God.
It helps us to make sense of our world and it’s wonders, so we can let our light shine brightly.’

Spirituality at Warmingham

Our theologically rooted Christian vision encourages our school community to grow and flourish spiritually. At Warmingham, we believe that it is important to foster the children’s spirituality by ensuring they encounter a wide range of learning opportunities and experiences. We believe that spiritual development should not be synonymous with RE or Collective Worship, instead it should be interwoven into all aspects of school life including our curriculum becoming the thread which runs through our very core.

At Warmingham, the spiritual dimension is expressed through our strong Christian faith, and the recognition of the spiritual nature of mankind. As a school we focus on the idea of four concepts of spirituality:

  • Self (being a unique person and understanding self-perception) 
  • Others (how empathy, concern, compassion and other values and principles affect relationships)
  • The world and its beauty (perceiving and relating to the physical and creative world through responses to nature and art)
  • Beyond (relating to the transcendental and understanding experiences and meaning outside the ‘everyday’)

School, home and the church all play an important role in supporting children’s spiritual development.  By working together, children will have even more opportunity to feel close to God.  All members of the school community including parents and our church work as a team around the children to nurture children’s spiritual development by:

  • Adopting a positive attitude to the value of spiritual education.
  • Supporting the school’s Christian ethos and acts of community worship such as assemblies and church services.
  • Respecting the views and beliefs of others.

Organisation and Implementation

Without curiosity, without the inclination to question, and without the exercise of imagination, insight and intuition, children would lack the motivation to learn. To ensure this does not happen we:

  • Value the children’s questions and give them space for their own thoughts, ideas and concerns.
  • Enable the children to make connections between aspects of their learning.
  • Encourage the children to relate their learning to a wider frame of reference, e.g. asking ‘why?’, ‘how?’, and ‘where?’ as well as ‘what?’

Spirituality is not taught, but is an inherent interwoven part of all aspects of school life and is nurtured and promoted as a natural element of the curriculum. Opportunities for spiritual development are presented or naturally arise, and are promoted in all aspects of the curriculum and school life as the children become actively engaged in an enquiry based curriculum, which provides a wide range of experiential learning opportunities that enables them to question, consider, reflect and respond, and consider their own values, beliefs and feelings and those of others, with whom they are working alongside or with.

To promote spirituality, we start with ‘big questions’ about life and we plan a series of encounters (windows) that open up the possibility of reflection (mirrors) before the children are finally given the opportunity to put into action what they believe and value (doors).

window.png   Windows – Learning about Life

We have opportunities to become aware of the world around us; to wonder about life’s ‘Wows’ (things that are amazing and unexplainable) and the ‘Ows’ (things that upset us or make us feel uncertain). This helps us to learn about life in all its fullness.

mirror.png  Mirrors – Learning from Life

We have opportunities to reflect on our experiences; to meditate and reflect on life’s big questions and to consider some possible answers. This ensures we are learning from life by exploring our own thoughts and those of others.

door.png   Doors – Learning to live Life

We have opportunities to respond to all of this; to do something creative to express our thoughts and convictions. This encourages us to put into action what we believe in and value, whilst ensuring that we stand-up for others.

Outlined below are some of the key ways in which spiritual development is nurtured and promoted as part of the curriculum at Warmingham:

In Collective Worship:

  • Opportunities for reflection and response are planned into worship.
  • Debating 'big questions' linked to the content of worship.
  • Stillness.
  • Personal and collective beliefs are respected.
  • Sharing and celebrating common beliefs.
  • Celebrating success.
  • Sharing happiness, sorrow, hurt, excitement, anticipation, fear, etc.
  • Common activities such as singing, listening, laughing, praying, reflecting on a theme.
  • Remembering and celebrating the lives of people of spiritual significance.
  • Emphasising common purpose and values.
  • Experiencing emotions.

In Computing:

  • The wonder of worldwide instant communication.
  • The speed of the growth of knowledge.
  • The accessibility of knowledge and contact with other people worldwide.

In the Creative Arts (Art, Music, Drama and Dance):

  • The work of creative artists from a variety of times and places.
  • Beauty, truth and goodness.
  • Expressing, interpreting and exploring deep feelings and profound beliefs.
  • Artistic creativity.
  • The effects of the arts on emotions and senses.
  • The arts as means of expressing mood.
  • Skill in creation and performance, and particularly in personal reflection upon their own creativity using various art forms.
  • Effects on the emotions and senses.
  • Personal response and preference.
  • Mood.
  • Skill.
  • Pattern.

In Design and Technology:

  • Discovering how something works.
  • Appreciating genius.
  • Beauty in design.
  • Perseverance to solve problems.
  • Personal achievement.
  • Learning from others and nature.

In English:

  • Empathy with authors and the characters in stories and plays.
  • The appreciation of beauty in language.
  • Emotions and sentiments in writing and speech.
  • The values of great works.
  • Heroes and heroines in literature.
  • Imagining oneself as someone else.
  • Escaping into other worlds through literature.
  • The element of wonder in literature.

In Geography:

  • Wonder at the diversity of environments and people.
  • Questions about the care of the environment.
  • The beliefs behind particular causes and campaigns.
  • World (economic) development.
  • Land formation.
  • Empathy with people from other parts of the world.

In History:

  • Being in touch with past people, things and ideas.
  • Being part of history.
  • Handling artefacts.
  • Influential events and people.
  • The commitment of significant people in history.
  • War and peace.
  • Interpretation in history.
  • The nature and importance of invention and exploration.
  • Empathy with people from other times in history.

In Maths:

  • Infinity and nothing.
  • Pattern and order.
  • Shape and regularity.
  • Truth, certainty and likelihood.
  • The universality of mathematics over time and space.
  • The wonder of numbers, formulae and equations.

In Physical Education:

  • Being a team member.
  • Extremes of skill, endurance and achievement.
  • Emotion in sport.
  • Personal limitation and failure.
  • Appreciation of perfection.
  • Sportsmanship.

In Religious Education:

  • People, places, things, books, actions and ideas held by religious believers to be holy.
  • Ultimate questions of meaning and purpose.
  • Ideas of the divine/questions of God.
  • Forms of worship.
  • Use of music, art and drama to express beliefs.
  • Varieties of beliefs, celebrations and rituals.
  • Ideas of commitment and belonging to groups and institutions.
  • The idea of mystery and questions with no clear answers.

In RHSE

  • Developing awareness of and responding to others’ needs and wants.
  • Exploring meaning and purpose for individuals and society.
  • Developing resilience and inner strength.
  • Valuing self as unique in the image of God.
  • Cherishing relationships.

In Science:

  • Wonder as the basis of science.
  • Questions of beginning, creation and evolution.
  • Discovering the limits of experimentation.
  • Birth, life, death and renewal.
  • The universe and beyond.
  • Regularity and order in science.
  • Beliefs in science and the faith of scientists.
  • The impact of scientific achievements.

In addition, as part of the curriculum, the children have opportunities:

  • To visit places of beauty, interest and challenge.
  • To admire and wonder at the natural environment and human creative efforts.
  • To work out personal relationships in unusual and challenging situations.
  • To experience community cohesion links at a local, national and global level.
  • To engage in charity based activities.
  • To participate in a wide range of events and activities, involving a range of outside agencies, coaches, etc.

In order to facilitate spiritual development further:

  • Everyone involved in the life of the school is valued and seen to be valued.
  • Policies and ensuing practices are clearly seen to reflect the worth of individuals.
  • Behaviour and people management policies and practices are collectively arrived at and discussed regularly.
  • All adults recognise the need to set good examples of mutual respect and considerate behaviour.
  • The quality and nature of the learning environment and displays reflect the value placed on pupils and staff.
  • Aesthetic awareness is encouraged.
  • The atmosphere of the school welcomes differences in beliefs and values, and invites everyone to belong.
  • The achievements, successes and efforts of everyone are recognised and celebrated.

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