Spiritual Development

Spirituality is something fundamental to the human condition which is not necessarily experienced through the physical senses and/or expressed through everyday words. In other words, it’s not something we can see but instead something we feel inside ourselves. It has to do with relationships with other people and for believers with ‘God’. It has to do with the universal search for individual identity, with our responses to challenging experiences such as death and suffering, beauty and encounters with others. It has to do with the search for meaning and purpose in life and for values to live by.

For Christians in church, spirituality is about developing a deeper understanding of and connection with God. Through this we are able to respond to the loving nature of God as revealed through the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A school is not a church, but it is a collection of people who come from a variety of backgrounds for the purpose of education. Family backgrounds may be different and spiritual development must take account of the varied circumstances of our staff and pupils.

To talk about spirituality is, essentially, to talk about something which is beyond words. To make conversations about spirituality more accessible to every member of our school community, Pluckley Church of England Primary School has chosen to utilise the metaphor of a ring doughnut to explain Spirituality. This idea is taken from the work of Liz Mills. The Doughnut represents the ’Whole Child‘. The outer ring is the tangible (Mind and Body), the hole represents the intangible (Spirit) but if there was no hole it wouldn’t be a doughnut. It is the space inside the doughnut where our spiritual self lives; where our beliefs, faith and ideas support us to share our outer selves with the world. 

Based on this, we have come up with the following definition for Spirituality:           

“Spirituality is recognising the value of connections; with ourselves, with others, with beauty and the beyond – where we embrace questions and reflect upon the wonder of existence, allowing us to love, grow, thrive and flourish together.”
 

The spiritual growth of pupils is not only dependent on learning in RE, opportunities for enhancing the spiritual well-being of learners are developed in every aspect of our school life. 

We support the whole school community to share this responsibility and to develop the shared language of spirituality. Opportunities are available for all to develop spiritually in our supportive and nurturing school inspired by our vision and lived out through our Christian values. 

At Pluckley Church of England Primary School we utilise the ‘Windows, Mirrors, Doors’ strategy designed by Liz Mills to broaden and deepen understanding about spiritual learning throughout our curriculum. Through our use of this strategy we will encourage children to think about inspirational experiences, challenge them to ask searching questions and prompt them to consider some possible opportunities for response.
 

The Window - Looking Out

The window symbolises ‘looking out’ at the ‘Ows’ or ‘Wows’ of life; things that are ‘awe-full’ and make us wonder and be grateful and things that are ‘awful’ and make us wonder and ask questions. In this stage, children are taught about or asked to recall inspirational or significant people and events that have demonstrated the ‘theme' or 'value' in action.  

Mirrors - Looking In 

The mirror invites children to reflect, alone and together, to ‘look inside’ and to be honest about some challenging questions concerning their own attitudes and actions.  During this stage, we often focus our thoughts on our REFLECT values - our guiding principles - which are embedded into our daily life in terms of our conduct and approach to our learning and to each other. We link these principles to our Collective Worship, to Bible stories and to our behaviour policy and our rewards system.

Doors - Looking Ahead

The door points ahead to the impact that the children’s journey of reflection might have on the way they live their lives. It is about the possibility of change and resolving to do something practical that will bring change about.

In order to best utilise the Windows, Mirrors and Doors strategy, we have identified specific areas which contribute to the spiritual growth of pupils: collective worship, the whole curriculum, including RE and the general ethos of the school within daily life. In conjunction with this, every classroom has a Reflective Area for quiet, contemplative thoughts, and staff and children tend to our peace garden as calm spaces for spiritual reflection. 

Children are regularly invited to stop and think (looking through the window at what they are seeing and hearing) and then reflect (for example through writing or drawing a picture) to respond to what they have heard and how this has affected them. During our collective worships and across topics and subject areas, we provide children with big questions that may not have a definite answer. Throughout a learning sequence or journey, the children are encouraged to reflect upon these questions. In this sense, awe and wonder is created, allowing time and space for spiritual growth and understanding of one’s place within the world.