Date: 10 May 2022
Do you have a favourite story about a special person?
Do you have a special place where you go to think about someone or something important?
Do you wear special clothes to show you belong to something?
Who do you think should look after the world?
These are some of the questions that teachers were encouraged to explore with their classes when the diocesan schools team hosted their first religious education conference for teachers working in nursery and reception classes.
They welcomed teachers from both church schools and community schools across the diocese to hear from Gill Vaisey, a nationally known figure in the field of Religious Education for nursery and infant aged children.
Gill has written a number of resources that are accompanied by delightful puppets including the Rev Jeremy Fisher and his cat Puddles. She drew on her recent experience working with young children and their families to create a series of books ‘Believing and Belonging’ about their experience of being part of a faith community.
The teachers were shown how to draw out religious education from popular early years topics such as “What do we wear?” and “How do we care for the world?”
Gill’s enthusiasm created a real buzz, even via Zoom and inspired the thirty teachers present to use new ways to approach religious education with their classes.
Feedback on the Zoom chat was very positive. One teacher wrote, “This has been great – with so many ideas for EYFS in particular.” And another commented, “So many great ideas and resources. I am off to write a list of resources and ask my head for some money!”
Jane Whittington, the Diocesan School Officer said “Teachers working with nursery and reception children are often overlooked in training, it was a pleasure to offer a session that was so perfectly tailored to the needs of these professionals. However, I fear that we may be less popular with school bursars as the teachers return to school with their wish lists of resources!”