Spirituality
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT?
It's thinking about your relationship with:
Others: how we feel about others, historical figures, characters in a book, people we see on TV and how these people help me see myself and make sense of things. how we feel about others/historical figures/characters in a book/people we see on TV/how these people help me see myself and make sense of things
Yourself: how you feel about yourself, your skills, your achievements and any targets you have for yourself.
The Divine: our understanding of God shapes our behaviour, thoughts, actions and the way we interact with others. (This doesn't mean that you have to believe in God and be part of a religion.)
The World: how we experience awe and wonder and thinking about things that worry or frighten you.
SOMETHING TO HELP US
At Saughall All Saints, we use Windows, Mirrors and Doors to help us understand our Spiritual Development.
WINDOWS
This is like looking through a window and identifying what you can see.We call this learning about life from what you see.
It helps develop a sense of awareness of the world.
When we talk about window moments in school, we categorise them in to the following:
WOW moments- these are things we see that inspire awe and wonder in us, things that we like
OW moments- these are the things we see that we don't like.
MIRRORS
We use a mirror image to encourage the children to reflect on what they have seen out of the window, to think about what it means to them or to remind them of things that have happened in their own lives.
We talk about how we can learn from life, the things we have seen or the things that have happened to use. We encourage the children to explore their own feelings and thoughts, and the feelings and thoughts of other people.
DOORS
This is our time to respond to what we have seen through the window or in the mirror.
We learn to live life.
This is us living out our Christian vision: 'We all love, learn and grow together' and we decide how we can 'Love our neighbours as ourselves'.
We are showing our love in action.
Summer 2024
In the summer term of 2024, the Ethos group planned and delivered an afternoon of lessons focusing on the school's Christian Vision. To do this, they used Windows, Mirrors, Doors to help the children learn what our Christian Vision means to us.
In Reception, the team focused on the story behind our Christian Vision (The Good Samaritan). They shared the story as a windows' moment and then talked about how they have helped others as a mirrors' moment and then allowed the children to share how they would want to help others as their doors' moment. They drew pictures of how they want to help the world, they sorted pictures of rubbish according to what can be recycled and what can't, they identified actions that show love and they worked as a team to complete games.
Year 1 and 2 also watched the story of The Good Samaritan as a windows' moment and focused on what happened to the man who was beaten up as an OW moment. They talked about their own OW moments as a mirrors' moment and then sand 'Love in Action' to spark ideas for their doors' moment activity, which was to create role-plays for how we can stop bullying.
Year 3 and 4's windows' moment involved watching the story of Moses parting the Red Sea. They focused on this being a WOW moment and how the Israelites and Moses worked together to trust God. They shared times when they have trusted someone when considering mirrors' moments and then played Consequences as a doors' moment to show how hard it can be to work together at times.
The Year 5 and 6 team focused on team work. They began by looking at team badges and what these all had in common- this was considered a WOW moment for our windows. They then did some trust falls as mirrors' moments and then drew or wrote how they can work together on a jigsaw piece and fitted these together for their doors' moment.