Burnside Primary
Introduction
The Religious Observence (RO) team at Burnside school has worked together in open discussion and with an inclusion agenda to develop the role of the chaplain and RO within the school.
Burnside Primary School in South Lanarkshire had a history of Muslim and Jehovah's Witness pupils being withdrawn from religious observance. Since the publication of Circular 1/2005, a developing understanding within the school and chaplaincy team and positive practice and engagement with families has reduced this rate to zero.
Recent inspection
Burnside Primary School has a roll of 368, which includes pupils with additional support needs and a broad cross-section of the community. Members of the teaching staff have a variety of faith backgrounds. The recent inspection commented on the positive quality and atmosphere of relationships and the appropriate arrangements for religious observance.
Living values, not just writing them
An RO team has been formed. This is made up of the headteacher, Kevin Kelman, Julie Wilson (teacher with RME responsibilities) and the three school chaplains, Jen Robertson, William Wilson and Chic Martindale (the chaplains are all from a Christian faith background). Together they have worked at building communication and trust within the school. At the heart of this process has been the strong inclusive school community ethos with non-judgemental attitudes. The staff, including the chaplains, consider it important that values are lived rather than just written down.
It's not worship
The strong vision of the Review Group that RO was not worship has enabled the Burnside SMT to discuss with the families of minority faith groups about how they and their children can participate meaningfully in religious observance. Assemblies are contemporary, use up- to-date music via CDs and seek to create the right atmosphere for spiritual development of all in the school.
Parents of minority faith groups have welcomed the changes. They have spoken of their own childhood experiences of being withdrawn and isolated during RO events. Family traditions are respected.
Honest discussion
The ethos of inclusion has also enabled honest discussion within the school. A pupil felt able to make use of the school worrybox to express their fear of being forced to pray.
Role of the chaplains
For the chaplains, this has meant not going to the school with an agenda but a desire to listen, to serve and to support what was happening in the school. For the school it was about creating a climate where the chaplains felt confident to try things and to take risks in developing resources. The RO team meet monthly on a formal basis and maintain regular contact with each.
The chaplains are involved in the wider life of the school, eg the P7 football club, informal curricular worship opportunities, after-school clubs, pastoral situations and working with some families. In doing this the chaplains provide a different but complementary role to the teaching staff, which includes:
- developing the ambience of our RO events
- reviewing the songs used at assemblies to make them more inclusive
- creating a range of interactive stimuli for RO events
- developing and delivering a range of guided reflections for the different themes covered at RO events
- considering the different types of responses that children may participate in, in response to the guided reflection
- developing links from RO events to classroom practice, for example through circle time.
Next steps
- An information leaflet for parents is being considered.
- The creation of sacred space is being explored, for example for Muslim pupils during Ramadan and for members of other faiths during other times of the year.
- Greater involvement of the chaplaincy team in the life of the school.