"For I know the plans I have for you… plans to give you hope and a future."

 (Jeremiah 29:11)

What is Spirituality?

We believe that providing opportunities to educate the whole child, through exploration of the world, the inner self, and full life experiences, supports our aspirational vision to enable and ignite spirituality within all. Jeremiah 29:11 encapsulates this through the idea that we are here to ensure every child is nurtured to reach their very best potential.

We define spirituality as an ongoing, reflective journey.  It is something that teaches us about questioning, understanding and relationships: relationships with ourselves, others, the world and beyond within a Christian context.  Christian values are central to all we do at Ruishton. They are talked about, lived and nourished.

Spirituality enables our children to be happy, feel safe, accepted, loved and to flourish and succeed, thus living life in all its fullness.

For our children it is about:

• A sense of awe and wonder
• Care for nature and living things
• Wanting to love and be loved by people

Awe and Wonder:

Children are born inquisitive, and it is our duty to nurture this natural curiosity and guide them towards looking at the world and noticing, with awe and wonder, the natural and man-made delights all around us.  We want to encourage our children to ask ‘big questions’ about life, religion, nature, science and any other area of fascination. In our Guided Reading lessons, we specifically plan for an awe and wonder approach, focusing on the deeper meaning of texts.

Caring for Nature and Living Things:

We provide many opportunities for children to learn about nature and the role they play in protecting our world.  As a church school this is especially important.  Our children learn about the world and how they can care for all creation.

Love:

“Go and do likewise.” (Luke 25:37)

The Christian value of love is at the very centre of all our work.  We are a caring school and pride ourselves on our ethos of family, underpinned by The Good Samaritan and loving thy neighbour.  Through our Christian values, we teach children to care for friends, family and the community.  We want out children to develop love and hope, based on God’s love for all through Christ, and to develop friendships, welcoming supporting and loving each other, celebrating the gifts and talents of all.

Children’s spiritual development is fostered through all aspects of our provision.  It is about the relationships and the values that we consider to be important, as well as the development of knowledge, concepts, skills and attitudes.

We give children opportunities to:

• Express personal beliefs and compare views with others, sharing feelings and opinions through discussions and stories.
• Begin to develop their own system of beliefs which may or may not include religious beliefs.
• Experience a love of learning through rewarding their enthusiasm and by encouraging exploratory play and learning.
• Reflect upon the world around them and show a sense of awe and wonder towards aspects of the natural world or human achievement.
• Reflect on the situations of others.
• Experience a range of stories, music, art, drama and dance.

How do we do this?

Our approach towards spiritual development looks to educate the whole child in fullness across a broad and balanced, local curriculum.  Spiritual development is not specific to one curriculum area or activity.

Children are encouraged to ask questions and explore topics, discussing and responding to issues around them.

Whilst spiritual moments can be spontaneous, at our school, we plan to provide high quality, thought provoking and purposeful opportunities for spiritual development.

We nurture spirituality through:

Reflection spaces:

Dedicated quiet areas in classrooms for moments to reflect and be still.

Collective Worship:

A time to come together, pause, reflect, talk, give gratitude to god or higher power and each other. This includes prayer and music. We use the ‘In, Out, Up’ model to support active reflection.

We encourage children to engage with ‘Big Questions’ each week, focusing on meaning, purpose, imagination and fairness. Each Big Question Collective Worship aims to engage every voice, mutual respect and deeper thinking about self and the world around us.

Curriculum:

We use awe and wonder approaches for reading, and art music and nature to help pupils appreciate the beauty of life and the wider world. All children are taught to engage and respect nature and all its living beings through forest school sessions each term.

Community:

We promote service as one of our values, supporting pupils to translate their thoughts, beliefs and ideas into social action. This is can be through fundraising for charity, looking after the environment of the school and surrounding village and treating each other and the school with respect.

We operate a School Streets initiative to keep our pupils and families safe in the immediate road surrounding the school, demonstrating daily service and responsibility to the community.

Each week, members of our local parish churches run a lunchtime ‘Shine Club’ for pupils. Rooted in a weekly Biblical story, the club offers an opportunity to come together to learn, reflect and find a joyful connection with each other and God.

Our staff Ethos Team and our pupil Ethos and Wellbeing Team meet regularly and foster relationships in the school by modelling compassion, forgiveness and empathy to build a true sense of belonging.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

(Luke 10:27)

In Summary…

We deliberately allow opportunities for spiritual development by understanding the importance of and allowing time to develop an increased awareness of the world (whether this be through worship or the curriculum) reflecting upon the good and the bad, finding ways in which this can be reflected on with others’ support and exploring a range of creative ways to live out and put the ‘faith’ which is growing from this into practice.

These are some of the characteristics we seek to encourage in our pupils at Ruishton to support them to become more confident in their own spirituality:

• Self-respect and respect for others
• A sense of adventure and willingness to try new things
• Curiosity about the natural world
• Confidence in our own beliefs with an openness to learning from other ways of thinking
• Imagination and creativity
• Fearlessness to ask ‘big questions’
• A keen awareness of injustice
• An ability to stand in another’s shoes and look at things from their perspective
• Foster relationships with each other through community events and initiatives