This creative arts-based Barnabas RE Day offers a range of ways for primary-aged pupils to engage with the important values of compassion, service and community. It also supplies strategies and exercises focussed on building character.
This creative arts-based Barnabas RE Day offers a range of ways for primary-aged pupils to engage with the important values of compassion, service and community.
Focusing on New Testament stories, the day will cover:
- What are values and character?
- How do they form the people we are and the communities we belong to?
- How do values relate to school life both individually and corporately?
Each day usually begins with Collective Worship on the ‘Creating Character’ theme for the whole school. This is followed by creative workshops for individual classes up to a maximum of seven sessions. Alternatively, you may select a particular key stage or set of year groups to take part in the day.
The workshops will use interactive and reflective activities to consider what the values of compassion, service and community look like in practice.
- What does it mean to be caring and to serve others?
- What does it mean to be a community that lives well together?
- How do we show these values in everyday life?
For each workshop, there will be an opportunity to learn about a Bible concept or story, such as Jesus and the paralysed man, what might be learned from it, and how it might relate to individual lives today. This is followed by a time of reflection, when pupils are given the opportunity to consider how these values might relate to them in their class, school or wider community.
Find out more about the structure of a Barnabas RE Day.
A range of cross-curricular ideas to support the RE Days are available for download.
Additional ‘Creating Character’ RE days are available that focus on ‘Friendship, Forgiveness and Peace’ and ‘Respect, Resilience and Responsibility’.
Creating Character support material
The following is a list of material for Collective Worship and a variety of subject areas. Some of the ideas can be used for more than one subject, and many can be adapted to suit other age groups.
Exploring values through Collective Worship
- Breaking bad rules, but showing respect – how can we show respect for other people, if we disagree with them?
- Who should I trust? – exploring compassion, humility and trust through the story of Jesus and the Roman centurion’s servant.
- Creativity and compassion: Michael Faraday – how the famous scientist found Something where others saw Nothing.
- Scallop shells and pilgrimage – using imagery associated with pilgrimage to reflect positively on the past year.
- Under siege – based on Psalm 23, about coping with the feeling of being surrounded by enemies.
- A firestorm of fury – an act of collective worship about respect, responsibility, keeping your temper and making peace.
- Daniel’s challenge – a no-rehearsal drama about teamwork, resilience, leadership. and food!
- Antoni Gaudi – what do you think you were put here on Earth to do?
Cross-curricular activities to explore character values
Literacy
- Thinking it through, working it out – using a classic Bible story about forgiveness to generate questions and discussion (suitable for KS2)
- Standing up (Zacchaeus) – a story about creating friendship, forgiveness and peace (suitable for KS2)
- The shepherd – understanding responsibility and self-sacrifice (suitable for KS2)
- The selfish giant – a story about creating friendship, forgiveness and peace (suitable for KS1 and 2)
- Breaking the rules (suitable for KS2)
- Taking responsibility for others – Kathy Germain and the food bank
RE
- Thinking it through, working it out – using a classic Bible story about forgiveness to generate questions and discussion (suitable for KS2)
- Standing up (Zacchaeus) – a story about creating friends, forgiveness and peace (suitable for KS2)
- The shepherd – understanding responsibility and self-sacrifice (suitable for KS2)
- Breaking the rules (suitable for KS2)
- Taking responsibility for others – Kathy Germain and the food bank
History
- The shepherd – understanding responsibility and self-sacrifice (suitable for KS2)
- Breaking the rules (suitable for KS2)
Drama
- The selfish giant – a story about creating friendship, forgiveness and peace (suitable for KS1 and 2)