The Parish Church - History or RE?

PR writes: I work in a Church of England VC primary school and I've been using my local parish church as a visit for KS2 RE for some years. I've recently been thinking that the detail of what I've been doing has contained more history than RE. But I'm not an RE specialist. Any tips?

Terence replies:
As a VC school you'll be using the agreed syllabus and if your syllabus isn't specific about the RE-specific mileage in a church visit, then try to build in these pointers:

• For Christians the church is really a community (= ecclesia), although the name is used confusingly about the building. (For 300+ years of early Christianity, there were no purpose-built church buildings at all). So in RE, treat the building as a shell that the community inhabits when it's 'at home' and not doing other things in the wider community of which the church is a part. Or a bit like a child's bedroom - if they're not in it, you can tell from the posters, decoration, displays, quite a lot about the bedroom's occupant - but it's no substitute for meeting the occupant! So don't expect too much from the empty church building.
  
  
• In preparation for the visit, emphasize the symbols in the building and what they stand for, the worship that goes on in the building and the people who make up that community and what they do as a community (there may be a photograph board of church personnel on display and a newsletter will tell you what the community does week by week). Don't ignore the history of the building, but concentrate on its religious purpose and symbolism.
  
  
• Allow for a period of affective learning near the start of your visit - or at the start and again at the end. Settle children to sit quietly for a minute or two and get a sense of the atmosphere, to look, listen, even smell (if incense is sometimes used there), to get a sense of place. Remind them that if the building is cold on their visit, the congregation may not be able to afford to heat it every day of the week and it may be warm on Sunday!
  
  
• Avoid death by worksheet! Children can sometimes be so busy helping each other with answers to the many questions that they don't 'see' very much at all!
  
  
• Teach within the context of Christianity as a world religion not merely a UK or western religion. In other words, if you're in a rural school, your nearest parish church may have a small, mainly elderly congregation and not even one service every Sunday. Its vicar may be responsible for three or more churches. The image the children see may be of inactivity or decline. This needs to be contrasted with world wide images of different sorts of churches, large and small, growing as well as declining.
  
  
• Why the Church of England only? If there are other churches in your area you can visit as well, take your class there too. They may provide a contrast of symbols; building; denomination; activities within their local community.
  
  
• If you want to have a 'host' to meet your class in church and answer some of their questions, remember that the vicar may be good - but there are other people available as well whose 'take' may be different: the organist, or the churchwarden, or the housewife or househusband who goes there every week and could spare an hour, or the sixth former who worships there and used to be a pupil at your school.
  
  
• Build up your subject knowledge of Christianity from the St Gabriel's website. It will help to provide a context for your local work.
  
  
• Finally to avoid too much history, look to the future with your class - how would they design a church building for today's Christians that fulfilled these criteria:
  • Reminded Christians by its symbols of their hopes and beliefs
  • Had a sense of mystery, atmosphere, something beyond ourselves
  • Used space and colour well
  • Was practical.
  A good summative task to look forwards not back!

Terence Copley - May 2007