We hope that our children and adults at Birchington will flourish academically, emotionally, mentally and physically but also spiritually.

The origin of the word spiritual is the Latin word ‘spiritus’ meaning breath. Breathing is an essential element of human life. Spirituality has something to do with an essence of living and if this is the case, it affects every part of our lives, including school life. Spirituality can be deeply personal and at Birchington we aim to support spiritual development by providing a safe, open and accepting environment in order for all members of the community can explore their experiences and their beliefs.

Spirituality is the heart of what it means to be human.

We place a high priority on spiritual development for our children. We do this to help them flourish 'as a person', as this enables them to be reflective about their own thoughts and beliefs, helps them to inform their perspective on life and empowers them to develop into valuable members of our community.

In school, we do this by developing connections to ourselves, others, the world and, for some, a higher being.

 

  

Whilst Collective Worship allows us time to develop our spirituality, many further opportunities may be found throughout the curriculum as well as outside in the school grounds including our Peace Spiral, forest area, the field and playgrounds.

Our Spirituality Representatives

Every class from Years 1 to 6 has their own main and Vice Spirituality Representative. The Spirituality Representatives have a number of roles in our school. For example:

✓ They attend regular meetings with the Spirituality Hub Leader

✓ They ensure their Class Prayer Space is kept looking clean and tidy

✓ They help monitor Collective Worship and work together to lead worships at certain times throughout the year

✓ They attend special trips and visits such as the Remembrance Parade, the Christmas Tree Festival in our local church and various church services

✓ They are the voice of the other pupils in our school and will collect ideas/thoughts from their classes.

 

Our Spirituality Hub

Our role as members of the RE & Spirituality Hub, is to work together to ensure that we are enabling our whole school community to flourish. We offer advice and training, monitor RE planning, teaching and assessment and spend time listening to ‘pupil voice’, looking at children’s RE work to ensure it is well planned, delivered appropriately and is inclusive to all. We also monitor the content and quality of our Collective Worship alongside our pupil Spirituality reps.

The Hub also takes an active role in ensuring our environment is conducive to developing children’s wellbeing and spirituality. This includes ensuring children are able to access prayer and reflection time both in the classroom, in the communal areas and outside in the school grounds.

The RE & Spirituality Hub Members are: -

➢ Mrs G Partridge (Hub & Subject Leader)

➢ Mrs Louise Wilson (Headteacher)

➢ Mr Jonathan Forwood (Deputy Headteacher)

➢ Ms L Bant (Chair of Governors & Foundation Governor)

➢ Rev Mark Ham (Foundation Governor & Incumbent)