This half term in Religious Education we have been learning about different religious faiths and their special books: the Bible, the Torah and the Quran. We have had a fantastic Eid assembly delivered by parents in our Muslim community, including a member of staff, Mrs Shaz, who spoke about the importance of reading the Quran.
We have used retrieval practice quizzes to recall prior learning; challenging the children to remember the names of the different religions and their special books. We remembered that in September, Year One read a story from the Quran called Mohammed and the 7 Kittens! The prophet Mohammed found 7 kittens in the heat of the desert. He gave them shade and cut a part of his own cloak off so the kittens had a bed to cuddle on with their mummy. The story showed us that kindness to animals in the natural world is just as important as the kindness we show to other people.
We have been remembering and retrieving this theme of kindness on our recent school trip to the Bushey United Synagogue and St. Peter’s Church. We were warmly welcomed by Rabbi Feldman and by Father Andrew.
In the Synagogue we heard a story from the Torah about a girl called Ruth, who lived like a princess in Israel but gave up her money and clothes to go and care for her old mother-in-law, Naomi. As well as kindness to animals, special books can remind us to be kind to the elderly people in our lives.
In church we heard a story from the Bible called the Good Samaritan. In the story there is a Jewish man who was attacked by bandits! We noticed it was a little bit similar to the story of the Highway Rat and robbing is not a nice way to behave! Lots of people in the Bible story said they were too busy to stop and help the man but even though he was busy the Samaritan stopped and took care of the hurt man. This reminds us that even if we are busy other people might need us to stop and show our help and kindness.
How you can help at home:
Discuss how you can show kindness in a variety of ways.