Southampton City Mission

Schools

School work

“I want to do something different with RE” was the comment made by one head teacher. It resulted in an ongoing relationship between that school and Southampton City Mission (SCM). As well as assemblies, SCM is now delivering three RE weeks a year for the whole school focusing on the major Christian festivals.

Many schools struggle with meeting the legal requirements for RE, recognising that this curriculum subject is unlike any other. It is not like Maths or Science, Literacy or PE. RE is a Question of Faith. SCM seeks to serve schools in a number of ways:

1 ) Assemblies

2) Question of Faith days

3) Leap in Faith weeks

Schools work feedback

• Lovely balance of discussion / ‘serious stuff’, with hands on activities.
• High level of adult support to make activities livelier and run smoothly.
• Really great day, thanks! Got lots of ideas for own classroom teaching.
• The children were engaged and enthusiastic throughout. They learnt a lot, had fun and had different experiences.
• The children ended the day having had a wonderful time and with a very good understanding of resurrection.
• The pupils thought deeply about the meaning of resurrection and their reactions to the stories they were told.
• The children were able to express their emotions.
• Thank you for providing us with inspirational ideas.
• It was a fun day with plenty to keep the children motivated and busy.
• They enjoyed the games and the art session and were excited to share with the rest of the school in assembly.
• The stories were all brilliantly told.
• Families from all faith backgrounds are happy for their children to enter fully into collective worship and RE. The incredibly strong commitment to enhance the depth of understanding of what it really means to be a church school is demonstrated in events such as the recent ‘Leap in Faith’ week. This has proved to be a wonderful stimulus that has excited and engaged children in the Easter story. It has animated children by taking them out of their comfort zone and put them in places which have challenged their expectations and preconceived ideas. National Society Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools Report
• On the inspection week a particularly gifted visitor from Southampton City Mission immediately engaged every child’s attention in a most remarkable way, skilfully using a furry dog hand puppet as he got the children to think about Mother’s Day. The children really enjoyed this and there is no doubt that they left the assembly appreciating their mums much better. OFSTED Report.