Inclusive RE “The full range of ability, belief and family background”

Inclusive RE

“The full range of ability, belief and family background”

Religious education: inclusive, open hearted

and broad minded

Inclusion through...

• Personalised learning strategies• Curriculum content selection• Emphases on self-expression skills and

activities• Support staff (SEN / G&T)• Differentiated provision: task, outcome,

grouping • Attention to the idea that ‘every child matters’

Some inclusion issues for RE in 2012...• Does inclusive RE just

keep adding categories? ...scientology next anyone?

• How can RE include the ‘–ish’ alongside the many ‘-isms’

• Boundless inclusivity for the classroom, but what boundaries does practicality place?

• Is Humanism (capital ‘H’) a sufficiently diverse way of representing the non-religious?

• Do we still need to play the ‘internal diversity’ card more - and more often?

• “Cake slicing” is not a “numbers game” – but what are the rules?

• Who’s marginalised by the current practice?

Al Fatihah – the first surah of the Qur’an

“In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the

worlds; Most Gracious, Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment. You do we worship, and Your aid we seek, Show us the straight way, The way of those on whom You have bestowed Your

Grace, those whose (portion) is not wrath, and who go not astray.”

www.natre.org.uk Check out Spirited Arts Copyright

What Muslim beliefs did you observe in the quotes?

What might be the impact of these beliefs? How might they make a difference to life?

How do these beliefs reflect the teaching of Surah 1?

•Is one

•Is powerful

•Beyond describing

•Voice that guides us

•Has no partners

•If you believe god is one, then you would…

•If you believe all is powerful then you might…


(We reproduce by kind permission)

Ahmed Moustapha’s excellent image ‘The attributes of Divine Perfection’.

This image is used in this work to support and develop pupils’ understanding of Muslim concepts of God. It incorporates 99 geometric shapes, each written with one of the beautiful names of Allah, thus expressing an Islamic understanding of the divine without making an image.



The Kaaba at Makkah: empty of any image since the time of the Prophet, but still full, as is the whole universe, of the presence of Allah.The centre of Islamic faith on earth: a billion face it in prayer.


Task for pupils:• Work in a group of four. Don’t forget the 99 Beautiful Names

of Allah ~ they are a source for understanding Islamic theology

• Each person: Take an example of the Islamic beliefs about God you have studied, and create a visual representation of the belief, using Islamic rules (calligraphy, but no representation of persons)

• Compare the four examples in your group, and write a short joint commentary on these: how do they show what Muslims believe about God?

• What might a Muslim leader say about your work?• The simple model here is “explore the creativity of others –

engage creatively myself”• See three examples below





• “I have worked with the concept that “we are created in the Image of God” and that the 99 names or attributes of God are reflected within us. So when the viewer looks at the “99 names” s/he sees the Self reflected in the mirror, and is reminded of the 99 attributes within one’s own self.”

Yasmin Kathrada:


Muslim artist Ahmed Mater uses iron filings and a magnet block to create the swirling effect of this work of art.

Is it Ahmed Moustapha, or Yasmin Kathrada, or Ahmed Mater, who has best expressed the Muslim understanding of God / Allah?


The Holy Name of AllahJade, 8 Jade was inspired to make this by using a repeater pattern from the ICT equipment. Muslims are inspired by the holy name of Allah, Lord of the World. The painting uses Islamic rules, and doesn’t picture the divine.


God is Everywhere in the WorldShadan, 12

“My painting is called God is everywhere in the world! I chose to do a world and a book on top and that book represents the Quran (or Bible). The bottom of the world represents dirt: the thoughts of people that don’t have any religion, the thoughts of people that don’t believe in God. At the top of the world there is a light (coming from the holy writings) and that light is growing to show that God is growing.”


Frameworks for reflection: tears, question marks, leaves and lightbulbs: inclusion in practice

Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012

Rainbows

Colours and

diversity.

Promises

Hope through

trials

Natural beauty

Working on the Noah story, children finish

their study with a rainbow outline on card, by writing ‘7 Hopes for a

Better World’ (for myself, my family, my class, my

town, my country, my world and one more) in pairs. They collage the colours. The rainbows are cut out and hung

from coat hangers on the classroom ceiling as

mobiles.Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012

Ali and Sophie, (both 9) made a rainbow of different religions: “We think all the colours make up the rainbow, and all the religions make up God’s earth”


• Jacob is 14, from Ashfield Special School: “My rainbow has seven colours. I am hoping my mum has a good day and my cat is safe”


Stars

Small lights,

big darkness

Mystery and

distance

Being a star

Wonder and

curiosity

After work on the Muslim way of life,

including the idea of ‘the moon to light the

way and the star to guide’, pupils write 5 people who are their

‘guiding lights’ on to a display star, and talk in

circle time about who they chose and why. Or

using Jesus’ sayings about the light of the world, pupils choose

the people they think light up the world

today.


Stars

• Children drew on their stars the five things they like about Christmas, and hung them on a fence in the grounds. They wanted to hang them up much higher, and that will happen ‘next time’


”The reflective activities were undertaken in a genuine and thoughtful way by the children”Copyright Lat Blaylock RE Today 2012

Tear drops

Sadness

Suffering

Bitterness

‘A good cry’

Tragedy

At the end of a unit on why people suffer, pupils

take a big blue cut-out tear drop, and write a

meditation or reflection or prayer (let them choose) on the theme ‘Who helps

the suffering?’ Pre-print onto it a quote from Jesus

(‘Come to me all you weary and I will give you

rest…’) or the Buddha (‘Compassion for any

living being takes a step to a better world…’) and they will think about the

meaning as they work.


Your Request Has Been Denied By Penny'Your request…' represents the feeling that God, if he exists, is unreachable and hidden.At a time when we need God most, such as the peril the girl is facing, we reach out. No one grabs our hand. The masses of paper falling from the sky are a suggestion that our prayers never reach anyone. Cast up to the sky they fall back down again.The phrase 'your request has been denied', written on every piece of paper, is a suggestion that I can’t reach God. I feel there is no personal bond, no personal response to my prayers. All we receive is a weak cover up of the truth, and automated message: your request to be happy, to be alone, to do well, to get better, has been denied. If this is what happens, I feel it is very unlikely that God exists. This is what my paint and ink expresses. The different coloured lines represent movement, the different feelings the girl experiences during each prayer, each denied request.

Hands

Touching

Connecting with others

Caring and helping

Work

Love in action

Use a ‘drawn round’ hand to write five words that show

care, mutuality, work: What sums up Mother Teresa’s

work for others? What five things would Muslims say

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did best? What five things

can people in conflict do to build peace? Or write inside

the hand words that describe ‘how I see myself’ and round

the outside some ‘ways other people see me’.




A mobile phone

Messengers and

messages

Angels

Prayer

Communication

Roles of angels in the first revelation of the Holy Qur’an and the Christmas story have been explored in stories and

thinking. Pupils take a mobile phone illustration, and create

5 messages to the human race, from the angel of

mercy, the angel of good news, the angel of death, the angel of hope and the fallen

angel – this expresses visions of life in a reflective and

interesting way. What would the angels say to the humans

today?


http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=mobile+phone+line+drawing&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ACAW_en___GB394&biw=1366&bih=603&tbm=isch&tbnid=kSnsD6XlnTFE8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.clker.com/clipart-cell-phone.html&docid=omtcoyJBuLhlMM&imgurl=http://www.clker.com/cliparts/4/e/7/b/1215441700743422472thilakarathna_Mobile_Phone.svg.hi.png&w=294&h=595&ei=TNZET-vrC6qo0QXihrCNBA&zoom=1


Window Openness

Vision

Escape

Looking outward

s

Light and

clarity

If eyes are the windows of the mind, what do you see when you look in? If

you could look in the window of heaven, what

would you see there? What about the window

on the stable at Bethlehem, or into the

widow when Gabriel spoke to Mary? Give a nice window outline to

pupils for their ideas.

Nicki is 12 Dark and Light“I got this idea from the thought that God is always there even when everything seems to be going wrong. When life’s hard, God is there to help you through. The girl crying in the dark symbolizes how alone and helpless she feels. The mist and cloud outside the window, the thin moon and very few stars show how little hope she has left. The small window shines a tiny bit of life into the room, but the window shape on the floor, from the light, is huge and bright, it is God’s light, watching over you, to give you hope again.”

What will you do with the 23 frameworks for reflection?

• Which do you use?• Which are new ideas for you?• Could you use these to inject 15 minutes

reflection into many more RE lessons? • Can you use them to sharpen ideas about

AT2 learning from religion?• Do they help build inclusion?


Documents

Inclusive RE “The full range of ability, belief and family background”