Pupils engage with fresh approach to RO
Friday, February 03, 2012
Pupils at a high school in East Renfrewshire have
enjoyed their school's new interactive approach to Religious
Observance.
In an attempt to try something different from the usual Religious Observance assembly, Woodfarm High opted to pilot an idea put forward by their SU Scotland Regional Worker, Martin Boyd, and ran a three-day Contemplation Room with interactive stations that focus on a specific area of Religious Observance.
Below, Martin shares the success of the
event:
Several months ago I was invited to a discussion at one of the
schools in my region, Woodfarm High, about how Religious Observance
should be carried out in the school. During the meeting I suggested
that, instead of having the traditional assembly time, we created
an interactive Contemplation Room in the school (similar to
something we had done previously for the European Pray for Schools
Day).
It was also decided to take a fresh approach and re-name any
Religious Observance events to 'Making Sense of...' events (e.g.
Making Sense of Respect, Making Sense of Christmas, Making Sense of
Equality, etc). The school were keen to pilot the
Contemplation Room idea with the first of these events: Making
Sense of Respect.
The school made sure every pupil in S1-S5 was timetabled to visit
the Contemplation Room, and pupils in S6 were able to opt-in during
their non-contact periods. Visits lasted for half a period (around
25 minutes) and had approximately 25 pupils. Given the size of
Woodfarm High, it took the best part of three days to get through
all of the pupils, let alone the staff who were also encouraged to
take time to visit (we had the office staff and dinner ladies
popping in too which was great). This was a significant commitment
of time from the team manning it (who were mostly parents) but we
felt that it was really worth it, and the time taken to set up was
wholly justified.
During the event
We had dictionary definitions of respect or disrespect set up outside the room so that as those passing the room (which was immediately off the main 'street' area in the school) could see that there was something going on.
It was good to see the first impressions of each group as they
came into the room - especially the forest scene which had real
giant leaves hanging down from the ceiling. They immediately knew
that this was something quite different from what they had taken
part in previously, and also that a lot of work had gone into
preparing the room.
Each session began with a two minute introduction for each group,
giving the briefest of tours of the room and pointing out the 3
main areas:
• Respect of environment
• Respect for others
• Respect for self
At each station there were things to read, write about, play
with and investigate. We had appropriate Bible verses at each
station along with other quotes which we suggested that pupils used
these to inform and guide their thoughts.
There were at least three team members in the room at any time -
they helped to prompt thinking and were able to ask and answer
questions. In terms of chaplaincy this was one of the
'successes' of the event - instead of just speaking to rows of
young people, this style of event gave us an opportunity to
interact with the pupils, have worthwhile conversations and build
relationships.
