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A specialist Religious Education and Art Teacher - I retired a few years ago. Now I am an Entrepreneur. I have created a Programme called The Seven Steps to Happiness. It is all about Reducing Stress, Building Resilience and Increasing Happiness. Before Coronavirus came along I gave Workshops and Retreats from my home. Now I am moving my work online. I share resources on TES to support my wonderful Teacher-Colleagues. Most are free but I spend hours on these so I charge for some of them. Enjoy.

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A specialist Religious Education and Art Teacher - I retired a few years ago. Now I am an Entrepreneur. I have created a Programme called The Seven Steps to Happiness. It is all about Reducing Stress, Building Resilience and Increasing Happiness. Before Coronavirus came along I gave Workshops and Retreats from my home. Now I am moving my work online. I share resources on TES to support my wonderful Teacher-Colleagues. Most are free but I spend hours on these so I charge for some of them. Enjoy.
chartere23  - Holy Quible Important texts for GCSE
durgamatadurgamata

chartere23 - Holy Quible Important texts for GCSE

(2)
this is an astonishingly brilliant collection of important quotations from Christian and Hindu sources for GCSE students. You will find it also at chartere23's site and I am not sharing it here to take any of the credit for it at all - simply because it is so good I want it to be seen by and used in class by as many of my colleagues in RE as possible. The only changes I have made to this version are - an introduction with thanks - and slight adjustments to formatting. Ideally I would then pdf it but no facility for that here. Thanks again chartere23
Christian Theology and the God question
durgamatadurgamata

Christian Theology and the God question

(2)
most of an essay I wrote on Christian Theology in around 1990 when working for my degree in Theology and Religious Studies. This is a good text to discuss with GCSE and A'level students.
Malala Yousafzai  - a source of inspiration
durgamatadurgamata

Malala Yousafzai - a source of inspiration

(7)
includes\nspeech Malala gave at the UN on 12th July 2013\nVideos of M's recovery\nmore vids inc reports and interviews from July - Nov 2013\nsome of M&'s blog + it inspires others\nwksheets 1 bckgnd to start of her speech\nWorksheet with 20 questions plus 2 - in process - on the substance of the speech. (yr 9 upwards needs adaption and differentiation.)\nWorksheet on UN and Human Rights\nTaliban 1 full text of letter from T with background \nTaliban 2 about T from a contrasting perspective\nWomen&';s experiences of T rule.\nBuddhist statues destroyed by T.\nDrone attacks.\n\nfeedback please
songs to use in teaching RE or assemblies
durgamatadurgamata

songs to use in teaching RE or assemblies

(2)
My Wish or Somebody Loves You would be great to use as a reflection exercise or starter in RE or pshe. I will add other useful songs with video as I come across them. ' please share your own favourites and I will add them too.
Conversations about religion / God / R Education
durgamatadurgamata

Conversations about religion / God / R Education

(0)
This section aims to share conversations about all sorts of important subjects. The first is in response to the email I sent about Religious Education and the English Bacc. - with a French Anarchist. It explores many interesting ideas and can be used to stimulate class discussion about what religion means and why we study Religious Education. If using with KS3 then some 'unpacking' may be needed, but the G + T fringe may enjoy it and some may respond by joining the campaign to support RE. A great example of how a potentially confrontational argument can end up as accord.
Symbolism in Buddhism - especially the lotus
durgamatadurgamata

Symbolism in Buddhism - especially the lotus

(5)
material here from several different websites - will save a lot of time but still needs some unpicking.\n\nThe Lotus symbolism explained in different ways, including symbolism of the colour.\n\nLotus in Chinese art -
Patience / dealing with life problems / suffering
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Patience / dealing with life problems / suffering

(0)
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.
Lyrics for It's Christmas, Get Cracking,
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Lyrics for It's Christmas, Get Cracking,

(2)
Here are the lyrics of another of Jill's songs from the aforementioned CD. I have used this a lot in teaching KS3 and KS4, it is funny and direct - engaging but very serious and quite soulful too. Please appreciate that my sister Jill has given me permission to share her songs - but only part of them. If she sees too many people downloading them free from here she may ask me to include only the first few lines of the music. She had to payva lot to get the recordings done. Once costs are covered all profits will go to charity. Contact - info@bluelotus.co (it is .co - not .com)
MP's list with contact details
durgamatadurgamata

MP's list with contact details

(1)
I aim to list of all the MP's and members of the House of Lords - with their contact details. I have just found a couple of good lists on internet so I am uploading info about these too. Contact details added for all the A - G surnames so far - more to follow I’ve uploaded a copy of my email and am adding any replies and correspondence from this as a separate resource.
Love and money - a Valentine's Day reflection
durgamatadurgamata

Love and money - a Valentine's Day reflection

(0)
Starting with an article from the Guardian 'A World Ruled by Money Has Failed. It's Time to Reclaim Love.' by Jeanette Winterson I will add other relevant articles as I find them. Please suggest your favourites.
Black Jesus, African Jesus
durgamatadurgamata

Black Jesus, African Jesus

(3)
This is a Power Point with 40 slides - all images of Jesus from an African perspective. It gives a sense of the way that Christians everywhere think of Jesus as their Brother, as their Friend, His divine aspect is for all, beyond the confines of one time or place, one nation or race. Christians everywhere can and do claim Jesus as their own.
70 posters to inspire - religion / spirituality
durgamatadurgamata

70 posters to inspire - religion / spirituality

(3)
I love using inspiring posters on my classroom walls – and indeed in my home. \nThere 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. \nI 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. \nMeanwhile – I hope you enjoy this sample.
articles -  Villages in India -- progress + change
durgamatadurgamata

articles - Villages in India -- progress + change

(2)
These articles cover many aspects of village life - including local democracy, provision of water, education and opportunities for women, caste problems etc. Useful in any international work, citizenship, community cohesion and Religious Education topics with KS3 KS4, GCSE etc.
Many of my most popular resouces for reference
durgamatadurgamata

Many of my most popular resouces for reference

(2)
In response to a non specialist asking about the best way of approaching teaching RE I have collected the web-addresses for some of my most popular resouces and listed them grouped under headings to hopefully make them easier to find. First are the Exploring Religion and Reflections on Life slide-shows which are most popular. Then there are the poems and quotations, some files grouped with others from that religion, and finally some role-play exercises. I hope this will be useful especially for nonspecialists and NQT's
Exploring Religion slide shows
durgamatadurgamata

Exploring Religion slide shows

(0)
Parts 1 - 4 are here. 3 also part 7 is up. parts 3, 4 and 7 are not yet finalised. see also Exploring Religion Conversation/Introduction - about 4 resources further on,145 slides you can use over 10 weeks, up to and including an 'activity&' each week. &';part 3 A Quest for Truth.' explores many concepts including science and religion and the great Eternal Questions + a section on poetry and symbolism with 10 selected poems. ? before or after part 4, the Religio / Relationships episode. This is a work still in progress and I would appreciate feedback.
durgamata blog  - from Thursday 13th Oct
durgamatadurgamata

durgamata blog - from Thursday 13th Oct

(2)
Continuation of my Meditation Blog. This started on 28th September in New York and ends on 30th October back in England. I have some notes in my diary which still need to be written up to include in this so I will add a few more files over the next few days. Some friends say I should edit the whole record and make it into a book!!! Well we will see about that.
What is Religion? Part one Religion and Me
durgamatadurgamata

What is Religion? Part one Religion and Me

(3)
The latest of my slide-shows which asks 'What is Religion? using beautiful images, inspiring quotations, thought provoking text and interactive activities.\nThe slides are timed to progress and some animation is used but the activities progress with a mouse-click and can be timed to suit. \nThis resource is great to start year 7 RE work. It takes viewers through two models of religion - the jigsaw and the garden and introduces the great Eternal Questions, exploring identity - body, vital, heart, mind and soul.\ncomments and feedback welcome.
Teaching Buddhism at AS / A'level (OCR)
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Teaching Buddhism at AS / A'level (OCR)

(0)
This is a list of schools that teach the OCR Buddhism unit at AS / A'level. There is also a resource list. I will add to both of these as I get more info. The aim is to help those who are teaching this to present it in a lively and engaging way and prevent it becoming dry and boring. (This is in direct response to a request for help on the RE forum.)
Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha photos/youtube links
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Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha photos/youtube links

(0)
A play about the life of Buddha, staged in a small Off Broadway theatre last year. I give a brief outline of each episode and links to the episodes found on Youtube. This is and amateur video but still manages to capture something of who Buddha was and what he taught. If anyone would like a copy of the full video I can supply it if they contact me on a pm. As always it would be great to get some good feedback, comments or rating etc - as a guide for anyone else who may be interested in this.