Rachel Kemp is the RE Coordinator working in several Primary Schools in Manchester. She is well-known for her passion for exploring the spiritual aspect of life and her skill with engaging children of all ages with this elusive subject. Here Rachel shares some recent work done with year 6 pupils about the subject of spirituality. This resource is being created by Rachel Kemp in collaboration with DurgaMata at Blue Lotus Enterprises.

Responding to a question on a thread about this topic, an outline of the way that different schools of thought within Islam respond to the question of what sort of art is permissible. I hope to add the actual suras from the Qur'an which relate to art and the Hadiths to this plus a power point of examples of Islamic Art which can be used in both RE and Art lessons - but to start with, here is my response to the question on the thread.

25 pages of quotes and poems with a couple of essays at the end - all about patience and dealing with life's problems and trials. Useful for many units of work including interfaith as quotes from many sources, secular and from various religions.

This is a collection of stories about kings historical and fictional - and some fun videos from youtube which illustrate some Indian stories. It will be useful for literacy + English as well as RE. classes.

this is an issue which may affect pupils in your school. Although it is a cultural not a religious practise it could be introduced as part of Human Rights, Citizenship, Coming of Age ceremonies or (as Islam takes a stand against it) within a unit on Islam. The Times reported in 2009 that there are 500 victims of FGM every year in the UK. According to the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development, 66,000 women in England and Wales have experienced FGM, with 7,000 girls at risk.

A favourite activity is when each pupil creates a Religious Identity Passport. I have several models for this. I've used simple versions with year 6 on induction day - quite detailed ones with years 10 and 11 – and all the stages between for years 7 – 9. The Outline is a form I am sending to those who apply for my courses, so I can plan group-work. When exploring Religious Identity in the classroom you use the same language.so while you may need to unpack the form for younger pupils, the form covers everything and may be easily adapted.

An assortment of war poems which include some from Iraqi and American poets and one from a 15 year old girl written on reflecting her visit to Auschwitz. I researched this in relation to work on Remembrance Day but there are poems here which could be used in many other topics including The Holocaust and all topics related to suffering, good and evil, war and peace.

This document talks readers through a range of important topics, offering questions and activities at intervals for an interactive learning experience. Arising from concern about the rise in racism since Brexit and the fact that many in RE are non-specialists and may feel ill-equipped to explore complex and controversial topics like these I have drawn on my own experience of teaching RE to offer this resource. I aim to develop this, expanding it to introduce the major religions and adding illustrations, games and more related activities - but even in this form I hope RE teachers and teachers from many other subjects may find it helpful next term - especially with KS3.

Reading an essay on this topic I was irritated because it didn't incude RE. Then I relised it missed out many links that as an Art teacher I would make between Art and different subjects in school. That inspired me to I use it as a springboard to explore the subject in more depth. I hope it will help to get our students to think 'outside the box&' and be more adventurous in finding inspiration for their work.

I love using inspiring posters on my classroom walls – and indeed in my home. There are some wonderful combinations of photography with quotations from a vast range of cultures and inspiring people which I have used in the past – mostly from Argus. Argus is now part of ‘Trend’ so they may have stopped creating some of those I am familiar with. I was looking for these ‘old favourites’ but couldn’t find them. However I did find the following – and hope some may be useful. I will try to find out what happened to some of my favourites. Meanwhile – I hope you enjoy this sample.

In preparing the Reflections on Life Slide Shows I researched quotations from many different sources. This is a great collection of Native American ones. I pasted onto this file from many sites and will, when time, try to include references to the original websites. There is a lot of material here including part of an autobiography by Chief Black Hawk, dictated to a government interpreter in the region, and edited by John B. Patterson, an Illinois journalist, who published it in 1833. As always, any rating and comments would be appreciated.

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This is also good for KS4 and post 16. The poems explore ideas about God and several are powerful atheistic and agnostic responses. Finally Johar's poem spans over a year. He has written about 35 pages, each exploring different aspect of Islam and his views as a British Muslim. I want to publish this and would value any feedback or ideas regarding this. Great material for stimulating serious discussion about the concept of God and many issues relating to Islam here.

Most of these relate to the conflict between Israel and Palestine - the 'Gaza Crisis&' of July-August 2014. A separate resource is being prepared relating to individuals and organisations which are working towards Peace and Reconciliation. please let me know of any resources you find that may help inform our classes about the conflict in the Middle East - aiming for a greater understanding of the issues underlying both sides of the conflict and pointing towards hope + enduring peace.

My approach aims to be practical and experimental. students who can be hostile towards other religions because of an atheist mentality are quite interested in Buddhism because it is such a practical faith which does not require belief in God. Buddha spoke of Truth and Nirvana. Many Hindus interpret this as God in the abstract form of qualities such as Truth, Peace and Bliss. I will add to the files in this folder

115 images and texts which explore life and meaning on earth encompassing many different faiths, races, cultures and ages etc on the way. Designed to use as part of a Community Cohesion programme to stimulate reflection and discussion - this should ideally be accompanied by music. It was designed with ‘Windmills of your Mind’ (All Angels version). I

This is copied from a thread on my messages. Tonight I answered the atheists statement in some detail and it occurred to me that this conversation would be useful when exploring the God question in school. I would love some feedback, especially questions that your own pupils may ask - so I could make my response more comprehensive and useful. the one I have just put up - (in progress) is probably the last in this series as I am now working with the atheist teacher to turn it into a book which will, hopefully, do justice to both our different viewpoints.

In response to a question about the use of SMART targets in RE, some ideas plus, in relation to one - to reduce the use of unqualified generalisations - some info about Pope Francis' survey of Catholics worldwide which highlights the diversity of belief even within one denomination of Christianity.

This began with a question - how to teach Salah to year 7's. I was haunted by this topic and added more until it ended up as this resource. The main file covers everything but from it I&'ve created a worksheet for the initial part of the lesson and an information sheet on the exploraton of Wonder, Awe and the God Question which I feel is essential to address in a &';religiously neutral' way before any consideration of prayer or worship.I welcome feedback. Love and Peace - DurgaMata

This resource is in process. There is an outline describing how to play the game, a blank table in which you or your pupils can suggest Key Words to include, a page of Key Words to begin with (1A) and an outline of the 1B table which will give meanings to the words in 1A. What is best about this game is that 'wrong&' answers are encouraged. Those who know the answer can think about the key words they are holding and try to link them with the meaning given.