What is spirituality?
Spirituality is an ongoing reflective journey.
Spirituality is a difficult thing to define! At Little Dewchurch CofE Primary School, we believe it is fundamental to our mental and physical well-being (for children and adults too), but is not exactly the same as those things. It is not necessarily tied to a religious belief. People of faith and people of no faith can be deeply spiritual. We have defined spirituality as this:
Spirituality is being in touch and at peace with the things that make us who we are...
How do we nurture spirituality at Little Dewchurch?
- Our school Christian values are taught, lived out and celebrated. We focus on exploring each deeply over the year, sharing stories from both the Bible and other texts that inspire us to live out a version of each value in our lives.
- We make sure there are times of peace and for reflection in the school day.
- We spend time in special places such as our local church and other places of worship
- We share art, music, stories and poems together.
- We share moments of awe and wonder.
- We encourage respectful debate and questioning and make sure children feel secure enough to ask those 'big' questions.
- We foster a love of creation through our school grounds and through school visits.
- We encourage the spirit of 'courageous advocacy' and standing up for what we believe in, such as our 'Student Voice’ making small changes on our school site to help protect our precious planet.
- We share different ways of exploring spirituality in worship e.g. looking at different religious art and icons, using candles, holding worship outside.
- We practice gratitude - we take time to give thanks and show thanks for the things, the actions and the people that bring us joy.
- We learn about our feelings, how to recognise them and live with them.
- We foster reflective thinking through our collective worship, RE and PSHE activities linked to our Christian values and vision, encouraging us to look inward at our own behaviour and thoughts, outward at the wonderful world around us and considering actions of ourselves and others which make a difference moving forward.
- Through our school vision we foster kindness, appreciation and love for others, supporting all children and adults in our school to flourish together.
Model of Spirituality
Spirituality is being in touch and at peace with the things that make us who we are.
Our Model of Spirituality
Based on The Red Kite by Andrew Rickett;
All of these are over-arched by LOVE
Spirituality At Home
Please see below about how you can encourage and foster conversations about spirituality at home.
01 childrens conversations about faith and spirituality family.pdf
