Minutes:
Faith in Schools Project
Alison Fothergill gave a brief talk about the Faith in Schools Project she funded through the Hillingdon Communities Trust. The purpose of the project was to develop inter-faith dialogue with children in primary schools by asking volunteers to go into schools to talk about their own faith.
The meeting heard that during these visits, issues such as respect would be discussed to establish what it meant to different faiths. The children would then be asked to complete drawings, write poems, perform a drama or be read a story from different faith groups. At the end of the session, the children would be challenged to see what the topic meant to them and their families. This project had also been used to look at various topics such as being a good neighbour and tackling bullying.
It was noted that the project was currently being focused on years 5 and 6 pupils in schools in Hayes and ended in December 2011. The meeting noted that it was envisaged that programme would be rolled out across the Borough once it had been completed in the South of the Borough.
Alison advised that most of the volunteers were non-teachers and very few were teachers.
Invitation was extended to any SACRE member who may wish to attend the sessions as observers. Those interested were asked to contract Alison directly at alisonfothergill@mac.com.
School Cluster Inter-faith Work
Carol Jones, Headteacher at Yeading Junior School briefed the meeting about Inter-faith events that had been taking place in the Borough, in particular, the activities that had involved the Extended Schools Group. She explained that the aim of Hillingdon Inter-Faith Network, Faith in Schools Workshops was to develop inter-faith dialogue sessions in schools to demonstrate community cohesion in action, highlight the commonality of all faiths, share differences between each faith and to promote tolerance and better understanding of other faiths.
It was noted that the work shops set up were aimed at children in years 2 to 5, with children in year 7 acting as facilitators. During these sessions, children were directed to work in groups with other children they did not know.
The meeting was advised that a session had been held at Grange Park Infant school where children from different schools attended with their parents/carers and participated together in the workshop. It was reported that very positive evaluation at the end of the session was given and some parents had asked for more of these events to be held.
It was explained that the workshop sessions were initially rolled out to 9 schools and since then, 20 schools had been engaged in Faith events. Carol suggested that this indicated that there was a need for more such activities, as they enhanced real understanding of different faiths by different faiths.
During discussion, it was suggested that staff in Community Cohesion were also working with the children and that this area of work encouraged more funding support.
Erica Blaire added that work being undertaken in relation to Community Cohesion would need to be demonstrated as having impacts on achievement somehow, to meet Government expectations.
The meeting noted that outreach between communities was one of the best ways of encouraging outreach to other faiths. This was being done through events such as the Week of Faith (From 19 November 2011), which gave the opportunity for people to be able to take part in events with people of other faiths and may even challenge parents to talk to other parents of different faiths in schools.