Recent Staff Training Day makes full use of the RE Resources

B&NES SACRE Resource Centre co-ordinator, Neil Baker writes...

A very informative and useful Religious Education training day was held at Saltford Church of England Primary School on January 13th 2009. It involved fourteen KS1 and KS2 teachers.

A variety of activities occurred throughout the day, many inspired by the excellent SACRE Primary Inset led by Lat Blaylock in the autumn term. Many ideas also came from the exploration and use of the many Resource Centre materials, particularly useful were the IT resources produced by SACRE for teaching about the Bristol Progressive Synagogue and Bath Islamic Centre.

One of the main items of the day was a chance for teachers to explore in groups the SACRE resource boxes kept at Saltford. Each group was given a task to set up a display using the artefacts. One group displayed Christian artefacts according to denominations, another group set up a Hindu shrine and the third group made a display of Jewish artefacts based on festivals.

The groups were asked to label the artefacts and to research information from the Internet or using RE software available in school. Each group also wrote questions for children to answer about the display and gave a presentation to the other teachers.

Ideas for using the resources:

• Christianity

• Judaism

• Hinduism

A very positive and productive day was had by all, making full use of the resources at the B&NES SACRE RE Resources Centre. 

For more information about the use of the resources at the centre, contact Rob Jenkins at rjenkins@saltfordschool.org.uk