Spirituality

Spiritual Development at Archbishop Sumner

As a Christian school, we believe that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). We recognise that people are spiritual beings and that thriving includes spiritual flourishing. Spirituality influences all areas of life. To think about spirituality is to think about those things that are beyond words. It might be described as something other, something that is greater than the course of everyday events.

To help children to understand spirituality, we share the following definition with them.

Spirituality is a place in my inner world. It is where I explore and connect with the world, everything in it, myself and its Creator.

We understand that spirituality is personal and our experience of it changes over time. We are open to listening to respecting children’s own interpretations of spirituality.

Using the Church of England’s Interpretations of Spiritual Development document, we have taken David Smith’s human capacities commonly identified as related to spiritual development to help us to plan and recognise spiritual development. These include children’s ability to:

• be guided by their beliefs and values and be willing to take a stand to defend them
• be self-aware and empathise with the experience of others in the school and wider community
• love themselves, care for themselves, believe in their potential to achieve, and find inner strength and resilience when facing challenges
• exercise imagination and creativity, appreciate beauty in the world and be alive to experiences of awe and wonder
• be intrigued by mystery and be open to an awareness of the transcendent in the whole of life
• be comfortable with stillness and silence and open to engage in reflection / meditation/prayer
• be ready to say sorry when mistakes are made, to forgive themselves and to forgive others
• be willing to take risks and to reflect, learn and grow following experiences of failure as well as success
• demonstrate curiosity and open mindedness when exploring life’s big questions
• appreciate and be thankful for what is good in life like friends and family, and show generosity towards others

Taking the SMSC Development document produced by Norwich Diocese and Mary Myatt as a starting point, we have collaborated to show some of the ways that spiritual development is nurtured across the formal curriculum. The document is not definitive: spirituality is experienced in an infinite number of ways and will always differ for each pupil and adult.

SMSC Development document produced by Norwich Diocese and Mary MyattChildren's Progression in Spirituality

Outside the formal curriculum, children’s and adults’ spirituality flourishes. Examples of this include (but are not limited to):

• offering opportunities to be still, wonder, reflect, question and listen. This happens in ‘obvious’ sessions, such as in collective worship or PSHE and also throughout the day, for example, posing ‘I wonder…’ questions during science or history, marvelling at the beauty of a piece of art or acknowledging the awe of a mathematical pattern.
• planning opportunities for children to be creative in the way that they express their learning and their questions. We provide safe spaces for children to ask, question, challenge and explain.
• providing spaces within the school for children to be still (such as the prayer space and the Eco garden).
• placing a high value on relationships – with self and with others (through PSHE, counselling and therapy sessions, our school behaviour policy and our day-to-day interactions with one another).
• establishing trust and mutual respect between adults and children and also amongst children.