Spirituality
Our Definition of Spirituality
At St John’s Church of England Primary School, we believe that spirituality is what defines us. It is the expression of our beliefs and values as articulated through the vision statement, our way of living a Christian and human life as shown in the decisions we make and the actions we take.
For a Church school such as ours, spirituality is based on the teachings of the Bible which, through our Christian values of hope, respect, love and forgiveness, it encourages understanding of and an ability to accept others regardless of their background or faith. |
"Spirituality is a feeling inside, it is not something we see.
It helps us to feel peaceful, curious, and full of wonder.
It’s about asking big questions, feeling part of the amazing world around us, and knowing we are connected to each other, to our community, to the world and beyond.
Just like magnets pull things together with invisible force, spirituality helps us feel a powerful connection we can't always see, but we can sense deep within."
Spiritual development is an important element of a child’s education and fundamental to all other areas of learning.
Opportunities for spiritual development are presented or naturally arise, and are promoted in all aspects of the curriculum and school life as the children become actively engaged in an enquiry based curriculum, which provides a wide range of experiential learning opportunities that enables them to question, consider, reflect and respond, and consider their own values, beliefs and feelings and those of others, with whom they are working alongside or with.
MAGNETS – adapted from Gary Thomas and Kathryn Wright’s Spiritual Pathways
At St John’s we have devised an approach to teaching Spirituality called MAGNETS. The definition of Magnet as a noun is ‘an invisible force, a person, place or thing that people feel strongly attracted to’. We believe that this represents the concept of personal spirituality for children and allows them to be able to explore the different pathways available to them to develop their own sense of spirituality. More about this aproach can be seen in our Spirituality Policy -