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Rosemary Privett and Sue Geyton of Pembridge CE Primary School worked together to introduce the Godly Play method in their school. Rosemary describes some of their experiences and the implications of using Godly Play in a small, rural, Church of England primary school.
During the period from September 2001 to July 2003, I was privileged to be part of The National Society's Godly Play Schools Project. In this article, I will be looking back over that period, reflecting on my own very personal experiences, and those of the children in my class.
At the time of the project, I was the teaching Head of Pembridge CE Primary School, a small school in rural Herefordshire. My Teaching Assistant, Sue Geyton, and I were both involved in the project.
The school had four classes and I taught a mixed Year 5/6 class. We were very much a family school and in both our OFSTEDs the ethos of the school had been described as very good. We aimed to create a school where children were listened to, and their opinions and ideas were valued. Our last section 23 inspection had said that a sense of the spiritual underpinned all aspects of school life.
When using the Godly Play approach, the telling of the chosen story is always followed by a period of wondering, where the story-teller encourages the children to reflect on what they have heard, through the use of open ended 'wondering questions'. So, when thinking about how I should record my reflections on the project, some of the 'wondering questions' sprang to mind.
I find myself wanting to respond, "I don't know, I liked it all!" Many of the children often replied in this way after hearing a story. If I had to make a choice, I enjoyed having dedicated time and space in which to listen to children's thoughts and ideas. Connected to this was the opportunity for adults and children to have time and space together, to think, to be still and reflect. This is really important when the primary school timetable is so pressurized! A Godly Play lesson enables space for reflection to happen.
Throughout the project, the children looked forward to the sessions and they would often ask me when the next one was going to be held. They valued this quiet, reflective space. A key part of the Godly Play philosophy is giving participants choices in their thinking and responses. This challenges the usual pattern of adult pre-determined outcomes. This was something that the children really appreciated. In my class, children were already encouraged to be independent and make choices, but, in spite of this, some children still found this new level of choice difficult. As the project progressed, so did their confidence, and the process of making choices became a lot easier.
The children loved listening to the stories and were always very attentive. The Year 5 and 6 children particularly enjoyed the sacred stories told using a sand box. The non-verbal elements of these stories, the gestures that accompanied key phrases or events, affected the children at a deep level, and were often repeated verbatim to their friends or to the adults in the room, during work time or in the wondering.
One of the four elements at the heart of Godly Play is 'building a community', and throughout the project there was a strong sense that the 'community of the classroom' grew and was strengthened. A wonderful example of this was the way the children shared 'the feast' at the end of the lessons. On one particular occasion the feast was very special. The children had shared the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. Everyone was very excited at feast time because some members of the class had made special biscuits at home, for the session. They were keen to share them and made special mention of the fact that everyone should share these biscuits. This included their regular supply teacher, who was in school on that day mounting a display in the entrance hall. Many children chose to talk about their work and a suggestion was made by one child that we share this with the whole school community in collective worship the next day. Some children volunteered to talk about the session and show their work. At the end of the feast the children chose to sing 'Shalom'. I suggested that we sing whilst standing in a circle and the children chose to hold hands. One girl had drawn a picture of Miriam so it was suggested by others that she stood in the middle of the circle, 'just like the people of God figures were standing in the sand tray.' We all sang with gusto! The sense of togetherness was overwhelming.
Another element at the heart of Godly Play is that of using religious language to make meaning. I found it fascinating to see how this particular approach enabled children, including those with special needs, to make connections and express quite profound truths.
"We are God's holy people. We are all people who are important to God."
"You should listen to God in your heart."
When sharing Matzo after the Exodus story: "It's peaceful and good when we share the bread together."
The first time we introduced the feast into our session, I explained that as a special way of bringing our session to a conclusion we would be sharing food and drink. There was a fascinating response from the children to this. One child said, 'We could make it a religious feast." Another child then took the cup of juice and biscuit and said the words of administration from the Eucharist. An interesting discussion about Communion followed and connections were made with the fact that Jesus used ordinary foods at the Last Supper.
Within this safe community, some children were able to talk about difficult and sometimes tragic bereavement experiences. The story and the wondering enabled them to give voice to these and to reflect on them, in ways that other methods don't. The story and wondering for the Ten Commandments lesson brought to the surface difficult moments in family life. One child commented:
"Do not break your marriage is a difficult rule to keep, because that's hard to sometimes. It's not always your fault."
Another child replied, "Yes, it's very hard, because deep down, you would have loved that person a lot in the beginning."
Creating sacred space is another key element of Godly Play. Something about the controlled process of getting the children ready to cross a threshold, into the space where the session was to be held, enabled them to experience that space as special. It didn't seem to matter if that space was the classroom or the hall. When crossing the threshold in our first session, one child asked if he could take his shoes off and other children followed his lead. "Just like we did when we went to the Sikh Temple last week." We ended up with a long line of shoes against the wall. Subsequently, this ritual became an accepted part of our Godly Play sessions.
As the project progressed, I learned that appearances can be deceptive. On many occasions, the child who was silent or who appeared to have drifted off during the wondering was often the one who was the most focused during the work time, or who offered something very personal during the feast. We used the term 'disengaged engagement' to describe this. We can never be sure of exactly what is going on in a child's head!
On a very personal level, the project enabled me to experience, afresh, the important place that stories and story-telling have for me. In the role of story-teller, there was often the sense that I was part of the story and the story was part of me.
What does this wondering question really do? Well it helps us to identify the really important elements of our response to a story. So perhaps I could rephrase this question and ask "What are the most important things that I have learned from this experience and want to keep sight of?"
Headteacher: Rosemary Privett (at the
time of the project)
Learning Support Assistant: Sue Geyton
Pembridge Church of England Primary School
West Street
Pembridge
Herefordshire
HR6 9DU
Tel: 01544 388366
Pembridge is a small Church of England primary school in rural Herefordshire.
Please note: Rosemary Privett is now
headteacher of
St Lawrence Church of England Primary School
Dog Lane
Napton-on-the-Hill
near Southam
Warwickshire
CV47 8LU.
Tel: 01926 812447
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