Developing Spirituality

At St Paul’s we believe that children should have regular opportunities to develop their spiritually. This is a requirement from Ofsted too. Ofsted state:

  • ability to be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and perspective on life;

  • knowledge of, and respect for, different people’s faiths, feelings and values;

  • sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them;

  • use of imagination and creativity in their learning;

  • willingness to reflect on their experiences;

The Faith Team have been working with Mr Papworth to create our own definition of spirituality:

Spirituality is how we connect with ourselves, each other, the world around us and beyond.

When looking at how we connect with ourselves, we use the language of ows, wows and nows. An ow is When something sad or upsetting happens. When we have an ow, there are lots of things we can do to help cheer us up:

  • Talk to a trusted adult

  • Spend time with a friend

  • Or do something you enjoy.

A now is when we see that the little things can be special too. There are many things you can do to help appreciate the now moments such as spending time outside and enjoying spending time with your friends and family or enjoying the little things like music, collective worship and quiet time to yourself.

A wow is when something amazing happens such as a residential trip, a theme day at school, a snow day or making lasting memories with family and friends, i.e. holidays.

When thinking about each other, this is how we connect with other people. This could be with our friends, families or other children at school. It is all about how we treat other people including helping people less fortunate than us like we did when raising money for Children in Need.

With how we connect and treat the world around us, this could be are local area of Dorking or the world around us. We could connect to the world around us by our actions and how we could make it better, for example, looking after our local area by not dropping litter or make a difference to the whole world by thinking how we travel and use cars less, like we are doing with the Wow Walk to School Challenge.

In school, there are plenty of ways we develop children’s understanding of beyond:

  • RE lessons

  • Collective worship

  • Big Questions

  • Class reflection areas.