1. Reflection from Spacemaker - muddy water:

Children said this activity made them feel calmer and that the activity could be used by some children to let their anger or worries go as part of Worship or in class. 

2. We reminded ourselves of all that we have achieved and want to celebrate as a committee:  

Concept cartoons as a way to assess, more ‘time to connect with chums and build relationships’, specific feedback to staff on how they can improve their teaching of RE, better use of reflective journals and reflective corners, within our classes. 

3. We thought about key things we want to action and take forward in the coming weeks and set dates for them: 

• Date chosen (9th May) for the committee to speak in assembly about who they are and what they do and want to take forward. Style of worship: introduce selves with photo, this is what we do, this is some of what we have achieved, one area we are trying to think about more is reflection area - muddy water, every reflection area to have a stilling activity with the 5 pictures at A5 or A6. 
• Date to be agreed for learning walk to look at reflective areas and evaluate them (4 children at infants and 4 at juniors) - proposed date Friday 21st March
• Mrs Burkinshaw to liaise with Mrs Honeybone about the possibility of merging ‘booknic’ with Chums.

4. Ways to evaluate worship:

Mr Meehan talked with us about different ways that he had used to evaluate collective worship and we chose the idea of having a book on the worship table that a different member of the committee can pick up each worship session and write a 1-2 sentence evaluation (the evaluator would sit on a chair to the side). 

5. Spacemaker:

Mr Meehan shared with us about ‘spacemaker’ and the 5 tools we can use to develop mental space. We also talked about the general idea of having spaces for calm - both physical and mental spaces. Mr Meehan told us about ‘the nook’, a calm space being created. 

6. RE teaching and learning (team) - New Curriculum:

Mrs Burkinshaw gave an update on the incoming RE curriculum and the new lenses - believing, thinking, living. 

Ongoing things to celebrate that we have actioned: concept cartoons, more ‘time to connect with chums and build relationships’, specific feedback to staff on how they can improve their teaching of RE, more RE teaching in one year 4 class in response to our feedback. Teachers are using reflective journals more and sharing them with the class for discussion. Wrote to Phil to say ‘Thank you’. 

What we would like to action going forward: more input into reflective area in making them more interactive, Chums picnic in the summer term, keeping Phil doing Worship, we would like a slot in worship to communicate what we do.

Worship: 

1. We have had lots of ideas and activities to help us think about 'That's what friends are for'. They continue to love Open the Book. 

2. A big thank you from all the group for asking Phil to do some Worship sessions. Everyone in the group thinks that his sessions are excellent and we have written him a letter. 

3. We celebrated the work of the Year 6 Worship leaders and a request was made for them to have a small part to play in Worship a bit more frequently. 

4. The Faith and Spirituality group have asked if they might be given 5-6 minutes as part of a Worship session next half term where they can communicate their role to the rest of the school on both sites and tell people who they are and to communicate what they have actioned so far and remind people they are there to hear the views of others. 

Reflective areas: 

Next half term the theme is ' I am a new creation'. We have come up with some ideas to support teachers in making their Reflective area more centred on this theme. We have asked teachers to suggest in their updates that children can bring in baby photos for our Reflective areas. Or putting photos on the wall or in a box or book. We would like these to be interactive, brighter and stand out more.

RE learning: 

1. We looked at the quality of work in books and there is a good amount of work in most books and the children talked animatedly about what they have been learning. Most children said that their teachers make the RE learning fun and engaging. We celebrated one class where there has been a significant improvement in the amount of teaching of RE after the feedback from this group last term. Some new feedback has been given to staff following today's meeting.

2. Work in books is consistent across the year group. Amount of work in books: Year 6: 2, Year 5: 4, Year 4: 3, Year 3:4. 

Chums: 

1. The group said that their voice has been heard and acted upon and they are really grateful for that. They had previously recommended that Chums sessions include more time for 'friendship and connection with their Chums and not just doing activities together'. Their overwhelming response was that this had been the case at the last Chums session and asked that we could keep it up. 

2. They suggested that going forward we could have a slightly longer Chums session and could we consider picnics for each Chums group in the Summer term, like the Year 5/2 have.

What have you been learning about in RE this term? 

Year 3: "We have been learning about what makes a bible hero and who can be heroes now".

Year 4: "The names of Jesus like the Bread of life and the Light of the world". 

Year 5: "The story of Buddhism and how they cope with suffering".

Year 6: "Buddhism - how is it different in Year 6 compared to Year 5 - we’re learning different things, we’re learning more now". 

What has helped you learn/best bits?

Year 3: "The Abraham video was really good and I liked it when Mrs Burkinshaw acted the story for us". 

Year 4: "It has been good making posters with all the different ideas on. Miss Glennon, our teacher, makes it really good". 

Year 5: "The slide shows are really good because they give us lots of information. It is also helpful when we watch videos about someone’s life".

Year 6: "It’s really helpful using BBC videos and different websites to research".

What could make it even better?

Year 4: "It would be helpful to have more videos about different faiths. It would be nice to use the outdoors more and use objects that are made from different materials". 

Year 5: "In our class we do more role play and it helps us understand what different faiths are like". 

Year 6: "It would be great if more people from different faiths could come and talk about what their faith means to them. Also it would be helpful to have more trips to religious places".

Is there any particular collective worship where you have learned something new?

Year 4: "I thought the worship about Dorcas was really helpful".

Year 5: "Open the Book helps us to remember the stories from the Bible".

Year 6: "It is really good when we have Open the Book and it is nice to have other people come in and lead our worship. I also found it helpful learning about everyone’s differences". 

How does our theme of ‘Belonging together’ make our school a happier place?

Year 3: "It has helped us to play with new people". 

Year 5: "I think it is helping people to think about their friendships and how to be a better friend and when we think about it everyone knows that they have someone to be with". 

Year 6: "It teaches us to help everyone, no matter what, even if we are different". 

Do you ever use your reflective area? What could improve it? 

Year 3: "Anaya uses it and tries to encourage other people to use it to write prayers. We have a lovely prayer box, maybe other people would like one too". 

Year 4: "It would be nice to have more bibles in the reflective area. I would really like the reflective area to represent other religions too". 

Year 5: "It would be helpful if the reflective area stood out a bit more and was more interactive". 

Year 6: "Maybe we could print pages from our reflected journal to make them better. We could put model RE books in the reflective area to help us all improve our work. We could all be part of a team to develop our own reflective area". 

What do you like about having a class reflective journal? 

Year 4: "When we look at it we can remember God".

Year 5: "I like to look back at what we have learnt in the past and it’s really good for other teachers and classes to look at and see what we have done".  

Year 6: "It helps us to remember what we have done over the year and it reminds us of happy times". 

What did you think about visiting church for Harvest and other events?

Year 3: "I like going to celebrate Jesus and God".

Year 4: "At church different year groups get to do the talking and that’s nice". 

Year 5: "It’s a bit harder now we sit on the floor".

Year 6: "It is enjoyable to go to church and it has a purpose. It would be helpful to space out the songs. I think that some of the younger years in the infants keep turning back to look at the older children, they probably want to see someone they know".  

 

22nd July 2024

What have you been learning about in RE this term? What is your new topic?

Year 3: “We have learned about Sikhs and we went to a Sikh temple.” “We are learning about Sikhism, but our new topic is the Holy Trinity.”

Year 4: “We have been learning about Sikhs and their religious symbols and buildings. We have also learned about what they have to follow.” “We have been learning about Sikhism, their places of worship, how Sikhs show they value the Guru Granth Sahib and the 5 K’s.”

Year 5: “We have been learning about how many churches they are in New Malden. We also made a route so we know how to get to the different churches.”

What has helped you learn/best bits?

Year 3: “We enjoyed learning about miracles and miracles from the Bible.” “Mrs Ward and Mrs Belcher help us learn.”

Year 4: “What helps us learn are videos and talking to partners.” “Drawing and watching videos have helped me visualise and learn about our topic.”

Year 5: “We used digimaps for schools to see where the churches are.”

What could make it even better?

Year 3: “We would like to do more drawing and add more stuff about DT.” “We would like to go on more trips to places.”

Year 4: “What could make it better is making posters, playing religious games, reading books about them and making slideshows.” “We could do more challenging things appropriate for our year and use our computers more often.”

Year 5: “We could make this topic better by watching more videos.”

What have you enjoyed about collective worship this term?

Year 3: “We enjoyed the topic ‘Everyone’s got gifts.” “We have enjoyed the games on Wednesdays with Nathan and Steven.”

Year 4: “We have learned how to do our best, the videos and Open the Book.” “We have really enjoyed seeing Open the Book.”

Year 5: “We really enjoyed the Open the Book coming in to tell us stories.”

Is there any particular collective worship where you have learned something new?

Year 3: “Change can be different but it’s good for you.”

Year 4: “When we were learning about the story of David and Goliath, it taught us to believe in God.” 

Year 5: “I learnt many stories from Open the Book.”

This theme has been all about Jesus being our “Good Shepherd” - what impact has this had on you and your friends?

Year 3: “We try not to leave our friends behind.”

Year 4: “This means God looks after us and leads us to the right path.” “I learned that God is like our Shepherd and we are like his sheep.”

Year 5: “This helps us reflect and we are the lamb.”

 

14th May 2024

What have you been learning about in RE this term? What is your new topic?

Year 3: “We’re learning about the signs of being a Sikh”. “We now know that Kirpan means ‘fight for what is right.” “We also learned about Sikhs and we learned that their teacher was Guru Nanak. They have a hat called Kesh and they keep the promise not to cut their hair.”

Year 4: “We’ve been learning about the Bible!” “We’ve been learning about different stories in the Bible, like how many books there are in the Bible.” “Now I know that there are 3100 verses in the Bible!”

Year 5: “We have been learning about Christianity and how different people pray. We made our own prayers and today we looked at the global scale of Christianity.” “I’ve learned that lots of people (even Christians) think different things about God than others e.g. how He answers prayers etc.)”

Year 6: “Courageous advocacy. We looked at charities around the UK and researched about them.” “Courageous Advocacy is when people help other people and animals who are in need.” “Anyone can be a Courageous Advocate by helping out in charities!”

What has helped you learn/best bits?

“It’s fun learning about different religions.”

“It gives you a better understanding of other people around you who worship other Gods.”

“They have short and simple videos - it’s straight to the point.”

“I like how Miss Brown lets us research ourselves!”

“I like RE because you get to be more kind. We get to learn about other religions and there are so many people in our school with other religions.”

What could make it even better?

Year 3: “To make RE a bit more fun and impressive, we should watch more videos so we could learn before we do our work.” “It’s better to add RE to Google Classroom.”

Year 5: “More drawing because sometimes there’s too much writing - it’s more fun to draw.”

Year 6: “More debates - I like debating different questions.” “I quite like the charity topic because we ‘deep dive’ into one charity.” “We want to make more powerpoints. It helps you work quicker because some people can type quicker than write.”

What have you enjoyed about collective worship this term?

“I like when Nathan or Steven come in because they explain things in a funny way!”

“Sometimes in singing, we sing normal songs about Christianity, but sometimes we want to listen to more action songs.”

“I like Collective Worship because sometimes there are funny - eg “Eh Oh” videos!”

“I like Open the Book because they make things funny!”

“I like videos because it’s funny and gets straight to the point.”

Is there any particular collective worship where you have learned something new?

“I’ve learned more through the videos where someone falls off the skateboard and everyone helps - I learned to help people because it will always come back to you.”

“I’ve learned how some things work - if you are not too sure about something, it’s easier when it’s acted out. I wasn’t too sure in Year 3 about how Jesus went to Heaven, but then when Open the Book acted it, I understood.”

“I learned about Feeding the 5000 - I never knew about that story when I was in Year 2.”

What do you think about prayer in Collective Worship? Do we be quiet enough in collective worship?

“It’s too basic and simple - I don’t really know how to make it better though.”

“I also think sometimes we do the same prayer for the whole topic - it’s a bit too much!”

“I feel the opposite - we need to make praying simple. Instead of a complicated prayer, we need one that everyone will understand.”

“I think it should not be ‘hands together and eyes closed’ - people may want to pray in different ways.”

“I think we should change the prayer because we always do the same prayer and some people don’t even join in!”

“I think we should do more praying in our heads.”

“When Mr Meehan came here, I’ve put my hand up only once because sometimes the iShare themes are quite complicated. Can we make them simpler?”

“There’s so many people who don’t worship God, it’s important that people don’t feel they have to worship - can we make more ‘wishing’ rather than praying.”

“Some other people have a different religion - could they say their own prayer in their own mind?”

Our last theme has been looking at our spirituality - what do you understand about being spiritual?

Year 3: “I feel like Spirituality is the Holy Trinity - God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.” “I know it’s something really good about windows, mirrors and doors. We can look out at the nature God made, look at ourselves to see how God created us, and doors to help us walk into Heaven.”

Year 4: “Spirituality means your beliefs - if you’re a Christian, you believe in God, if you’re another religion you believe in your own god.”

Year 5: “It’s about your inner being and your inner self.” “I think it means being reflective and thinking about yourself and about God. You think about being reflective like our iShare learning theme, like windows, mirrors and doors.” “I agree - you reflect on yourself and go out and try something new.” “I think it’s about how you have to keep your mind healthy, not just your body. Maybe reflecting with God or whatever religion you are.”

Year 6: “It’s about being close to God.” “It’s about equality because spirituality is all of us - we are all humans.”

Questions for next meeting

What could be made even better? 

What impact has the iShare theme had on you and your friends?

 

26th March 2024

What have you been learning about in RE this term? What is your new topic?

“We learned about the Easter story. It was very fun but there was quite a lot of writing and drawing.” - Year 6

“It’s been interesting to learn about the Easter story - I enjoyed the debate about the different opinions.” - Year 6

“We learned about Christians going on pilgrimages as well.” - Year 6

“We’ve been learning about the symbols of Easter - e.g. Alpha and Omega. Alpha and Omega means that Christ is the beginning and end of all things. We’ve also been learning about what the cross represents.” - Year 5

“We were also learning about Good Friday and Maundy Thursday.” - Year 5

“We talked about Psalm Sunday and what happened - why they put leaves and things like that on the ground for Jesus.” - Year 5

“We’ve been learning about what community means to us.” - Year 4

“We’ve also been learning about why Christians celebrate Holy Communion in Church.” - Year 4

“We went to Christ Church to learn about this. We learned about different names of the parts of the church.” - Year 4

“We’ve been doing the Easter story and about Peter. We learned how Jesus felt and how Judas felt when someone gave him 30 pieces of silver. He would have felt guilty.” - Year 3

“One of his followers betrayed him.” - Year 3

What has helped you learn/best bits?

“I quite like the debates. They are really interesting and we learned about lots of different people’s faiths.” - Year 6

“I like the concept cartoons because it’s like a debate. Sometimes we do 4 people and I like having a tricky debate over things.” - Year 5

“I like having debates because you can actually see the other person’s point of view. It helps you understand them so you can use this information later.” - Year 6

What could make it even better?

“Probably more videos - we love the “eh oh” videos of Jesus. They go through the bits that we need to know.” - Year 5

“We should add more quizzes about RE” - Year 5

“It would be better if there was less writing and more pictures.” - Year 4

“If you add more videos and more learning. We would like to look up more photos of the stories that we are learning about.” - Year 3

What have you enjoyed about collective worship this term?

“Sometimes we do quizzes and we have to guess the images. They then explain why we have been shown that, and we understand it.” - Year 5

“Sometimes the actors act and we can see how it was actually like. We can picture the story.” - Year 4

“I like when Nathan tells us the stories about Jesus.” - Year 3

“I’d like more photos when Steven talks. I want Steven to talk more about Jesus.”

“I like the singing because we do the same songs and then we can get them into our heads and we don’t have to look at the screen again.” - Year 3

Is there any particular collective worship where you have learned something new?

“In Open the Book, they are stories that we already know, but other times they are stories that we have never heard of. It’s easy to understand how it would have been.” - Year 5

“I’ve learned something new in Open the Book. I think drama really helps because you can understand how the people actually felt if it was in real life.” - Year 6

“When I was in Year 2, I didn’t really learn anything, but in Year 3, it was new to me. We had worship leaders. I liked it when the board wasn’t working, and they just had to tell the story.” - Year 3

Which songs that we sing or listen to do you appreciate? What do they mean to you and why?

“‘Shine’, because it makes me shine! It shows the world that Jesus died on the cross for sins.” - Year 3

“‘Lord I lift your name on high’ because it explains the Easter story and how we should believe in the Easter story.” - Year 6

“I don’t really like funky music or sad music because sometimes it’s just loud and dramatic and sometimes the songs are too sad. I think maybe we should have a song that connects to our theme.” - Year 5

“Sometimes we sing the same songs too much - we should have more variety but still Christian songs.” - Year 5

“In my opinion, when it’s the morning, and I’m tired, I get woken up by ‘Spring Chicken’ and songs with actions” - Year 5

“If I were a butterfly shows all of God’s creation and how he created us” - Year 6

“I like Easter prayer because it’s a harmony and it sounds beautiful. It makes your joy shine out.” - Year 3

“I like lots of songs but I think we play the same ones too many times - we’d like more rotation please.” - Year 6

“I like ‘Come to the table’ because no matter who you are, you’re allowed to come to the table and there will always be a place for you.” - Year 6

“I like ‘If I were a butterfly’ - it reminds us what God’s creation is and that we should remember him for what he created.” - Year 4

Our next theme is looking at our spirituality - what do you understand about being spiritual?

“I’m guessing it is when you show compassion?” - Year 4

“I think it’s something about faith.” - Year 3

“When you say spirituality, I first think of visions because you’re kind of looking with your spirit not your eyes.” - Year 6

“I think spirituality might be about an activity like meditation.” - Year 5

“I’m guessing it’s when Jesus died on the cross and how it’s like a spirit.” - Year 3

“I think spirituality is where your spirit is. If you’re praying, you pray to your God, and that is where you spirit is” - Year 5

“It kind of sounds like the Holy Spirit” - Year 3

Questions for next meeting

What do you think about prayer in Collective Worship? Do we be quiet enough in collective worship?

What could be made even better? 

What impact has the iShare theme had on you and your friends?

 

19th January 2024

What have you been learning about in RE this term? What is your new topic?

Year 3 – “We have been learning about a story about Goliath the Giant. We learned that he defeated a giant because he knew that God would protect him from danger.” “We’ve been learning about famous people’s lives and whether they are Christians or not. We’ve been learning about why they became Christians.”

Year 4 – “We’ve been learning that God chose Abraham as the founder of the Jewish faith. He had to go to Cannan and he would have loads of children. Visitors also came and told him that he would have children.” “We have been learning about why God chose Abraham.”

Year 5 – “In Year 5, we have been learning about Islam - the religion of Muslims. We’ve been watching videos and wrote what we know about Islam. Then we wrote down what Muslims believe, like Muslims believe the last prophet is a person called Mohammad.” “There are 73 different types of Muslims. Yahyah told me that he was a different type of Muslim because his family believe that there was another prophet after Mohammad so they are not really recognised as Muslims. The holy book is the Quran and we have the Bible and they have the 5 pillars and we have the 10 commandments. They have different prayer days.”

Year 6 - “We’ve been learning about Islam. We did the 5 pillars of Islam and we have also learned about different worldviews and commitments.”

What has helped you learn/best bits?

Year 3 – “Jesus feeding the 5 thousand because we watched a video and it helped me learn because I didn’t know the story before.” “It helps me learn about God and Jesus and about other religions.”

Year 4 – “The videos and also drawings to explain what I understand and it helps me understand. Drawing the pictures helps me too.”

Year 5 – “I would say the fun videos because there are some funny bits because it engages you into the videos.” “We watch one two minute video and it crams a lot into the video.” “In RE, it’s more fun to watch videos - I’m not good at drawing but illustrations help me because when I’m drawing, it makes me feel happy because it’s small and simple and it looks good.”

Year 6 - “The thinking deepers help and bring your own worldview into things because you really think about the question.”

What could make it even better?

Year 3 – “More thinking - by focusing and being more steadying.” AH suggested some challenge questions. “I would like to know more about God and Jesus and other religions - I want to know more about what they do.”

Year 4 – “More pictures so everyone could understand.” “Less writing.”

Year 5 – “Make concept cartoons more different - it’s always ‘who do you think is right?’ - it would be better if the person answering could think more about others. Sometimes there is a debate, because sometimes the different people are not one bad and one good.” “True and false questions, not just debates because you have to explain a lot and I’m not a fan of that.” “When I was in Year 3 and 4, we did more Christianity and when I was at that age, I wanted to know more. I already knew about these Bible stories and I wanted to know more information about them.”

Year 6 - “I think, I like it when we write down what we think because it makes us think about why we really think that.”

What have you enjoyed about collective worship this term?

“I am a Muslim and I like that worship help you learn more about prophets.”

“I like it when it’s interactive rather than just sitting there hearing someone speak”

“I like Open the Book - can they do it twice a week?”

What could be made even better? 

“Maybe if they get some stuff out so we could do some more acting.”

“I like Mr Burkinshaws when he adds a fun thing at the beginning and it leads on to what he is going to say.”

“I think I Share learning themes are good, but the same stories are sometimes repeated.”

“I think they should give you a little reminder of previous I Share learning themes, because when there’s a new one, you may forget the old one.” “It’s important to look back at other ones to help you memorise them.”