Spirituality
The Church of England’s Statement of Entitlement outlines the aims and expectations for Religious Education in Church of England Schools and guides this school’s approach to RE and spirituality.
Spirituality
St. Michael’s vision influences the ethos of our school and the policies and practices within it. We believe that spirituality is a core thread that runs through our school and we attach great importance to it for both children’s development and for the growth and well-being of all within our school community. We aim for children, and adults, to grow in their ability to:
● be guided by their beliefs and values and be willing to take a stand to defend them
● be self-aware and empathise with the experience of others in the school and wider community
● love themselves, care for themselves, believe in their potential to achieve, and find inner strength and resilience when facing challenges
● exercise imagination and creativity, appreciate beauty in the world and be alive to experiences of awe and wonder
● be intrigued by mystery and be open to an awareness of the transcendent in the whole of life
● be comfortable with stillness and silence and open to engage in reflection/meditation/prayer
● be ready to say sorry when mistakes are made, to forgive themselves and to forgive others
● be willing to take risks and to reflect, learn and grow following experiences of failure as well as success
● demonstrate curiosity and open mindedness when exploring life’s big questions
● appreciate and be thankful for what is good in life like friends and family, and show generosity towards others
What is spirituality?
To talk about spirituality is to talk about something which is beyond words. At St. Michael we try to make conversations about spirituality accessible to every member of our school community by developing a shared language. We understand that spirituality is about exploring relationships and increasing awareness of our four strands:
Ourselves - being a unique person, and understanding self-perception.
Others - how empathy, concern, compassion and other values and principles can affect relationships.
Wider natural world - seeing and relating to the physical and creative world through responses to nature and the arts.
Beyond - relating to, and increasing understanding of, experiences that are outside the ‘every day’.
Spirituality is not possible to teach. We recognise that you do not have to be religious to be spiritual. We acknowledge that promoting spirituality should not be confused with developing faith. Faith can be seen as a set of beliefs by which you live your life and could be a response to a belief in God or a non-religious world view. Faith is something you choose whereas spirituality is an aspect of human development. It is not separate but integral to who we are and what makes us whole.
What does this look like at St. Michael?
We aim to support children in making sense of themselves and the world around them. St. Michael uses the language and the concepts of wows, ows and nows. These are used to explore relationships with our four strands: ourselves, others, the wider natural world and beyond. In addition, offering the invitation to relate to God.
Wows - We might look at something and feel a sense of awe and wonder. We can have wow moments which make us realise that there are wonderful things all around us, and make us think of things that are greater than we are. It’s a time to reflect and empathise.
Ows - Things might go wrong in life, or we might experience pain or witness suffering. These ‘ow’ moments can lead to a greater awareness of the world around us and offer us the chance to make things stronger or better. It’s a time to reflect and empathise.
Nows - It is really important to pay attention to how you are feeling in the moment. To take time to appreciate joy or just being.
At St. Michael we aim to help all observe their own responses to different experiences. We believe that experiences, both in and out of school, are important to the development of our school community. For our children we do this through an enriched curriculum that is broad and balanced. Our curriculum prepares our children for their future and equips them to become lifelong learners. This is achieved through encouraging reflection and a growth mindset. The curriculum that we provide is diverse and inclusive. We believe in providing children with a wide range of curricular and extra-curricular activities to build on their education, but also to equip them with life skills including: clubs, trips, residential visits, visitors, Forest School, productions, Bikeability and swimming. This all feeds into developing spirituality.
(please read the Spirituality Policy for more detail)