Spirituality at St. Philip’s C of E Primary School

Spirituality is the development of a child's sense of self, relationships, purpose and belonging. It encourages children and staff to reflect, ask questions, experience awe and wonder, and grow in their understanding of themselves, others, the world and, within a Church of England school, God.

In our school, spirituality is generally understood as How children develop their sense of self, their relationships, and their understanding of the world and God.It is not seen as the same as religious belief; rather, it is about helping every child—whatever their faith or worldview—to reflect, ask questions, experience awe and wonder, and find meaning and purpose. This is rooted in the Church of England's vision that children should experience "life in all its fullness" (John 10:10). Spirituality is an ongoing, reflective journey. It is about questioning, understanding and relationships—relationships with ourselves, others, the world and, for Christians, with God. It permeates every area of the curriculum.

In practice, spirituality helps children and staff to:

• Develop a sense of awe and wonder about the world.
• Reflect on their own thoughts, feelings and experiences.
• Ask big questions about life, meaning and purpose.
• Build positive relationships with themselves, others and the natural world.
• Explore values such as compassion, hope, forgiveness and thankfulness.
• Consider how their beliefs and values influence their actions.

We shall represent our exploration of spirituality through four symbols:

• Windows – to show that we are noticing and experiencing awe and wonder.
• Mirrors –  to show that we are reflecting on thoughts, feelings and beliefs.
• Doors –     to show how we can respond through actions and choices.
• A dove -  to show God’s presence and guidance in our lives.

Teachers will build opportunities for spirituality into lessons across the curriculum so that at appropriate points, pupils will be given opportunity to reflect and record their thoughts in their own words.

Opportunities for spirituality will be signposted by the question or statement designed to provoke reflection.

An open-ended reflection.    

For more specific reflection, ideas can be channelled by a single image taken from this picture, for example the door or mirror. 

It is intended that the images will help pupils to focus in a specific direction as a prompt.