Multifaith Focus Week February 2017

In February 2017, we held a Multifaith Focus Week. During the week, the children made comparisons between Sikhism, Islam and Christianity, and took part in the Bedford Faith Tour, visiting three different places of worship on one day: The Jamia Masjid Gulshane Baghdad Mosque, The Guru Nanak Gurdwara and All Saints Church. We were very impressed to see how members of different faith communities live in harmony in such a rich and diverse neighbourhood.

Over the week we noticed many similarities and differences between each religion. We compared different religious objects, symbols, place of worship, important people, weddings, baptisms and special occasions. On Friday we were lucky enough to take part in a live video conference with Westminster Abbey, kindly organised by Bertie's mum.

By the end of the week, the children had a real appreciation of the beliefs and practices of each of three religions. The Faith Tour enabled the children to experience RE through first hand experience, as well as actively promoting spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and one of our school’s core Christian values: Respect for others.  

In the context of our small village infant school, with limited ethnic and religious diversity, we feel that it was very important that the children became more aware of the different faiths and places of worship within the UK, enabling them to broaden their appreciation of diversity and make comparisons from a position of knowledge.

The Diocese of Oxford published an article about our Multifaith Focus Week on their website. Click on the link below to access the article:

http://www.oxford.anglican.org/faith-tour-pupils-maids-moreton/