Changes at Hexham The SeleChris Hudson |
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Sele First
School is a state school situated in the heart of a busy little rural town,
adorned with a magnificent Abbey. From the visitors' car park, you see a
traditional Victorian school. Indoors, it's a modern complex of refurbished
buildings and state-of-the-art technology. It's a big three-form entry first
school with a strong reputation for high academic standards. My Barnabas Day was a bespoke affair for
three Reception classes, specifically requested by the Head: 'changes and moving
on', a theme based on the government's SEAL initiative (Social and Emotional
aspects of Learning). We don't normally do 'bespoke' Barnabas RE Days, but I had already had a request for exactly the
same theme by another Head, so I ran with it. The
workshop focussed on how change is happening to us all the time, and will keep
on happening, so we began by asking if we had tried something new, like
visiting somebody else's house or dressing up as someone else ('Cross the
circle if you have ever...') and moved on to how it feels to be somewhere new
and strange. This moved into acting out the story of the Lost Sheep, and how
sometimes we can get ourselves into trouble as we grow up, if we just try to do
what we want all the time.
Afterwards, we wondered what we would say to the Lost Sheep in the story on his
return. 'Are you all right now?' asked one child. 'Don't do it again!' said
another. Then we
moved on to another story , the story of David and Goliath, and how being brave
can help us to make good changes happen. So we had soldiers marching and
following orders, and little David being teased by his brothers for asking too
many questions. The Israelites and Philistines were shouting at each other like
football supporters ('2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate - GOLIATH!' and 'Here we go,
here we go here we go...') Goliath
had a sword to wave and was suitably scary. David, however, trusted in God... and
well, you know the rest. Afterwards, his trust in God and his bravery led to an
amazing change in his life when he became King. Pupil questions understandably
centred on how it felt to beat Goliath! We followed
this with a trust game in which volunteers were asked to lead each other around
by the hand in pairs, one leading carefully, the other with eyes tight shut.
Whom do we trust to lead us? Are we trustworthy leaders? 'It was scary!' said
one. 'I really liked that,' said another. 'It was like being on a rollercoaster
in the dark', said a third (which is possibly overstating it a bit, but you get
the idea.) Choosing whom to trust and being trustworthy ourselves are all part
of growing up. (David thought trusting God was very important.) Finally,
the story of Zacchaeus, acted out in Playmobile characters - and how Zacchaeus
(the very little man) found that his life changed when Jesus showed him how his
life as a thief was going wrong; and how
Zacchaeus said, 'Sorry, I want to pay everybody back', and more. 'I think the
other people wouldn't want him to sell his house to do that,' said one child. We finished
the day with an assembly recapping the changes involved in the previous three
stories, and added one final story: 'Jesus calming the Storm'. The children
provided sound effects with musical instruments as the storm blew up and the
ship started to sink - until Jesus woke up and said 'STOP!' The disciples awed
response ('Who is this? Even the wind
and the waves obey him!') shows another thing that can change us - when we
encounter things that make us stop, and go 'Wow'. We finished with an old, old
song done as a sea shanty with actions: 'With Jesus as the Captain we can smile
at the storm...' Smiles and waves all
round at the end. Staff
feedback included: 'The class were captivated by the Godly
Play and enjoyed the stories very much' and 'Great ideas, very much at
their level of thinking' and 'Bible stories presented well'. So... a
good day. |
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