New Perspectives on Spiritual Development

(title page)

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Contents

Thinking about what spiritual development is 1

Exploring what is distinctive about spiritual experience 9

Working out the implications for teachers 18

Reflecting on the whole-school implications 26

Bibliography 36

(Please note that these page numbers refer to the printed pamphlet, not this file. The actual page numbers from 1-36 are therefore 3 less than the page number of the file. If you wish to quote with page numbers please check with the author on tony.eaude@green.ox.ac.uk)

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ForewordThe first signs of Government interest in spiritual development began with an Ofsted questionnaire to all schools in 1993, signalling that schools are more than academic treadmills. This extraordinary questionnaire not only acknowledged the existence of spirituality. It assumed close connections with cultural and moral issues and declared that ‘spirituality’ - whatever it was - would from then on be added to inspectorial check lists.

Tony Eaude’s subtle and wide-ranging analysis responds to some of the very questions that Ofsted raised, supported by important new evidence that underpins what he has to say. Neurological scans can identify physical areas of the brain where activities associated with spirituality occur, indicating that ‘spirituality’ is a universal human phenomenon. Research data suggests clear links between our sense of self-worth and the succouring cultures of home and school: the building blocks are the fine detail of day-to-day, moment-to-moment experiences of relationships and the environment. This experiential fine detail, when we explore it sensitively enough, leads us quite naturally into the spiritual domain. Positive life experiences act as a protective veil as well as a proactive stimulus for deeper explorations of thinking and feeling. The wider scope of spirituality is both a highly individual and a deeply communal experience that includes and goes beyond formal religious belief. It links our self-esteem, the integration of personality, and our strivings for experiences beyond the narrow compass of ourselves.

Tony Eaude helps us to appreciate both why this is so and how we can take practical action to engage our brains in the mysterious realms of ‘knowing of’ - experiential and emotional knowledge - as opposed to ‘knowing that’, or conventional intellectual knowledge. This widens our regard for matters that, despite all the certainty of their reality, almost, but not quite, passeth all understanding.

Professor Sir David WinkleyPresident, National Primary Trust

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Thinking about what spiritual development is

Can we define what spiritual development is?

When spiritual development is mentioned, people usually change the subject rapidly or start a long discussion starting ‘how fascinating …’. Many teachers and schools shy away from thinking about it. I want to suggest that it is not something exotic, or weird, or to be afraid of and that, especially in primary schools, teachers already do much that contributes to spiritual development.

This publication tries, simply and accessibly, to provoke discussion so that teachers and headteachers think in new ways about spiritual development and how to enable and enhance it. Some of what it says challenges priorities and teaching methods currently in favour. So if your views are not challenged, I will not have succeeded. But you are going to need to do some thinking yourself!

The approach is based primarily on my research involving extensive observation of, and discussions with, teachers of four- and five- year olds in Oxfordshire schools and my experience as a headteacher. While this is, inevitably and rightly, personal, it is also enriched by curricular guidance and other people’s views including the insights of headteachers and advisers in the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire LEAs and Diocese of Gloucester through three case studies. The bibliography highlights some accessible and useful publications.

There is no one simple, clearly agreed definition of what spiritual development is. Its meaning is elusive and hard to pin down. Consider what you think it means - you may not cover everything, but it is that sort of idea.

What does the idea of spiritual development bring to mind? Write down your immediate thoughts.

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Although people disagree strongly whether a particular activity or response has anything to do with spiritual development, most recognise that it is not open to what philosophers call stipulative definition, with exact boundaries. The best comparison is with a concept like ‘games’. We all know what a game is, but try defining precisely what a game is! We come to a new, and richer, understanding by looking at common features of a range of examples. This is one reason for the use of illustrative case studies.

When thinking about spiritual development, you may have chosen something to do with (or any combination of these and other areas):

evocative, or favourite, places and experiences; creativity and responses to art and music; mystery and what we can't really understand; prayer, silence and meditation; religion and holiness; relationships to each other and/or to God; the opposite of what we can touch and feel (the material world); experiences which take us beyond ourselves; what is everlasting, or transcendent, or ultimate;

This, at least, narrows the field, so we know roughly what areas we are dealing with. You may already think either that certain things unrelated to spiritual development are being slipped in or that some elements are included which you want nothing to do with. But unless you think spiritual development is a meaningless term, you will probably agree that it is about what is significant and profound and is, potentially, something universal, affecting everyone, though in different ways. To say that spirituality only makes sense within a framework of religious belief risks excluding most children (and adults) in our present-day society. But the link with organised religion is an important area we will return to several times.

The language used to describe spiritual development poses a real problem. First, however it is described, it both reflects and very subtly structures our own view. To talk, for example, about ‘spiritual development’ presupposes that people do develop spiritually, a

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contentious issue to be considered later on. Second, many activities associated with spirituality are ‘beyond words’. Third, the language used is full of metaphors and associations, some of them conscious, but many so deep we are hardly aware of them. Take the term ‘spirituality’: its associations with religion, maybe as a personal response to God rather than organised worship and as something separate from normal life often involving unusual maybe incomprehensible activities, may arouse strong re-actions. Those who are not religious may say ‘I can’t make any sense of that’. Those interested in religion but who do not go to church may think ‘I’m interested in the personal aspect, but not any organisation or doctrines’. Churchgoers may think of spirituality only, or primarily, as how they respond personally to God. Consequently I try to avoid the term ‘spirituality’ and use the more neutral ‘spiritual experience’.

Does it help to think of spiritual experience instead?

I think of spiritual experience as the type of experience which helps to address certain types of fundamental question. These are questions of meaning, identity and purpose such as:

who am I? where do I fit in? why am I here?

These questions relate to all people, regardless of age, background, culture or religion. Most of the time, we do not think about such questions in depth, but they surface at different points in our lives and can never be conclusively answered. Certain types of experience are likely to bring such questions to the fore, but none necessarily do so. While people seek answers in different ways because culture is enormously important in framing how we see and understand the world, these are the most important, and sometimes the hardest, questions about ourselves and our place in the scheme of things. Religion has been, and remains for many, a very important route for exploring these questions, but such questions are universal and take us beyond the boundaries of religious faith.

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Using the term spiritual experience, rather than experiences, may sound rather academic but I want to help teachers move away from thinking of a prescribed set of experiences. Very ordinary things can be ‘routes into’ spiritual experience, like a snatch of conversation or a moment’s reflection, if they help to answer these questions. Rather than looking for a scheme of work, or curriculum, of ‘spiritual experiences’ or activities, we need to see the teacher’s role as the process of enabling children to understand themselves. Some people talk of the spiritual dimension or journey, or of spiritual growth or health. Whatever language you use, remember that ‘spiritual’ is not the preserve of any one subject area.

You may think that young children do not ask such questions, that it is inappropriate for them to do so, or that it is not the school’s role to deal with these issues. I shall try to persuade you otherwise!

Points for consideration Do you agree that these are universal questions? Would you add any others? Do you think young children ask such questions? Are there particular points in our lives when we ask such questions?

What is one school highly regarded for its spiritual development like?

Let us look at one school where the provision for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development was described by Ofsted as excellent. Christ Church, in Cheltenham, is a Church of England (Aided) primary school with 218 pupils. This case study highlights many elements, some specifically linked to its Christian ethos, but many others which may be seen in any type of school. We will return to this important point. Janie Fentem, the headteacher, writes:

‘Visitors frequently comment on the warm family atmosphere. Everyone being valued as a member of a large and caring family group is central to the school’s ethos. This family identity is represented symbolically by our

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‘school bowl’. The bowl contains glass beads and is filled with water, on which float three candles. The water reminds us that we are surrounded by God’s Holy Spirit. The three candles represent the Holy Trinity, and also remind us that Jesus is the Light of the World. The beads are of different colours, shapes and sizes, just as the children and adults of our school family are. Everyone in the school family chooses a bead to place in the bowl, and new children and staff are welcomed by selecting a bead and adding it to the bowl in the presence of the school family.

Each week, the themes for collective worship are planned to give the children a variety of opportunities to reflect on their own lives and to think of others. Sometimes a theme is linked to a charity event such as ‘UNICEF’ or ‘Operation Christmas Child’ in which children and staff are asked to think specifically about the lifestyles of others and how they can help them. Every half term a theme is planned so that relationships and bullying can be considered. The theme of ‘Saints’, for example, highlighted that many saints were persecuted, but had the courage to stand up to bullies. The children could reflect on when they had been brave enough to stand up to a bully for themselves or on someone else’s behalf. This is also linked to discussions in PSD and circle time.

Sometimes the children are given a visual stimulus. After looking with wonder at a series of slides of the natural world during winter, the children were left with the magnified image of a single snowflake and encouraged to reflect on the uniqueness of the snowflake and of themselves.

The pattern and symmetry of nature has cross-curricular links with subjects such as mathematics and art. We have considered how opportunities for reflection can be given across the curriculum, without being too contrived. In RE, for example, learning about the Torah enabled Yr 6 children to consider their own rules for living, particularly those they had drawn up for creating a positive learning environment in their own classroom. In PE and art, Yr 2 children used dance and painting to explore different types of weather, and to consider how various climates determine the existence of different plants and creatures in God’s world. A PSD-based ‘Healthy Heroes’ activity week had a ‘spiritual health’ strand, with local church members organising activities and workshops.

Children are encouraged to think about how an individual’s behaviour affects other members of the school community. Both adults and children are encouraged to share in praising and rewarding individuals. At the end of each day, each class considers, with their teacher and other helpers, which child has earned the title of ‘Child of the Day’. Whilst this may reflect

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effort put into work, it is equally likely to acknowledge a particularly kind or helpful action. We use a ‘Celebrations Board’ and ‘Good Work-Good Deed Board’ to commend children’s achievements and actions.

The children’s involvement in the school environment supports their spiritual development. Demolition of old decrepit classrooms created extra space and, through the School Council, children suggested how they would like the space to be used. In addition to a sports area, playground games, a pond and lawned area, the children requested an area to get away from the hustle and bustle of the playground. As a result, a small sunken garden was created, with benches to sit on. Having decided on a theme of ‘God’s wonderful world’, every child and adult painted a cobble stone which was set into a centrepiece around the tree. This echoes the idea of the ‘school bowl’. The garden is well used by small groups and individuals. Some children use it as a quiet place to go to sort out problems and to mend friendships, others sit and read, and some just like to sit by themselves to think. It provides a quiet haven within a noisy and active environment.’

Which aspects of this school’s practice do you do already? Are there any you might adopt (with appropriate adaptation)?

Where do relationships and values come in?

The question ‘who am I?’ cannot be asked without asking ‘where do I fit in?’ Spirituality is often seen as a solitary, emotional, interior activity. But this is too narrow a view. We become who we are in the context of relationships. Hay and Nye (1998) emphasise the importance of relationships as the foundation of spirituality. They use the term ‘relational consciousness’ with four ‘layers’:

child/self; child/people; child/world; and child/God (or a Transcendent Other).

Tiny infants are literally working out the difference between themselves and other people. Starting with an insistent emphasis on the self, young children explore their relationship with other people

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and the world around. The older the child, the more s/he may consider consciously what, if anything, lies beyond the physical world. The younger the child, the more this search for meaning involves exploration rather than final answers. These are, in one sense, stages of development; but even as adults we constantly seek answers in all four areas.

Increasingly, we have come to recognise that we are in a linked relationship with our environment and that we cannot plunder it without consequences for other people and forms of life. The increased speed of travel and global communication means that what happens in one part of the world affects people elsewhere far more, and more quickly, than previously. This highlights the importance of interdependence on a global scale. However, interdependence - or in Fairbairn’s words, ‘mature dependence’ - works at a more personal level. I have spent most of my life emphasising my own independence and autonomy, but I am increasingly aware that I am part of networks of relationships and traditions which affect me very profoundly. Most of you, especially women, probably reached this awareness long ago! In Hull’s words (1998: 66) ‘spirituality exists not inside people, but between them.’

Spiritual experience is not just an individual, internal process, but contributes to how we become integrated into this wider framework of relationships. Nor is it simply emotional, even if experiences such as listening to Martin Luther King’s speeches are often considered spiritual. But why do we not think of Hitler’s speeches at Nuremberg as spiritual? Or do we? They were very compelling and contained a strong moral (though distorted) message. Only by linking spiritual experience to values can we determine if it is authentic. Otherwise selfish or even abusive activities, such as self-indulgence or the actions of a serial killer, could be considered spiritual. Emotional and moral experience may be, or act as ‘routes into’, spiritual experience, but the spiritual element comes when this relates to meaning, identity and purpose. I think of the integration of the personality as the ‘aim’ of spiritual experience (or development) and closely linked to mental well-being. But this is not a fixed target. Just as we may be more, or less, healthy, we may become more, or less, integrated. Spiritual experience is always a dynamic process

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Moving towards a definition

However we try to define spiritual experience or spirituality, we never quite manage to capture what it is exactly. Below are two definitions: the first that of Andrew Wright, the second my own.

‘spirituality is the relationship of the individual, within community and tradition, to that which is – or is perceived to be – of ultimate concern, ultimate value, and ultimate truth, as appropriated through an informed, sensitive and reflective striving for spiritual wisdom’ (Wright, 2000: 104)

‘spiritual experience is that which enables, or enhances, greater personal integration within a framework of relationships by fostering exploration, conscious and otherwise, of identity and purpose, trans- cending the current level of self-knowledge and altering, or regaining, appropriate perspectives and values’. Different definitions provide new insights and angles on something inherently elusive, but most emphasise that spiritual development is about things that really matter, not just at the moment, but considered from a wider perspective. Spiritual experience relates to fundamental and universal questions by which people seek to understand themselves and their place in something bigger than they are. So it is something wider than religious experience, although a religious framework helps many people in this search.

Certain things about ourselves do not change, but how we understand ourselves - the story we tell of who we are - is, I believe, constantly changing. For example, who your parents were, your having become a parent (if you have), and certain common human needs will never change. But many aspects which make up who you are do change - jobs, friendships, roles, places you live in. This highlights that we have multiple identities, depending on who we are speaking to or the situation we are in. I present myself differently when with my mother from when I am teaching a class, when I arrive in a foreign country or playing a game of squash. This is one reason why the relationships, both with people and the world around, which we form and which form us, are so important in how we understand ourselves.

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Exploring what is distinctive about spiritual Experience

How does spiritual experience relate to religious faith?

Spiritual experience can be seen as overlapping with four other types of experience, namely the religious, emotional, moral and aesthetic. Unless there is something distinctive about ‘spiritual’, the word would be best avoided. Exploring how these overlap may make the distinctive elements clearer.

In English schools, spiritual development used to be understood only in relation to religious (usually Christian) faith. Several factors make a wider and more inclusive understanding necessary, including:

the considerable reduction in church attendance; the growth of many other faith communities, especially Islam,

Sikhism and Hinduism; the more individualised approach to belief and values,

associated with increasing secularisation and consumerism.

Much of the language and practice of spirituality is rooted historically within religion. Even those outside religious traditions can draw from this, but teachers cannot assume a tradition of Christian worship and belief, even in Church schools. Many pupils, especially in big cities, will be active members of other faiths. Everywhere, many children will have little knowledge, or experience, of religious belief or worship. Most teachers agree that children should learn about such stories as Noah’s Ark and the parable of the Good Samaritan, about the importance of the Bible and other holy books and religious practices and festivals. These are part of a common cultural heritage and of knowledge about others which leads to greater understanding and respect. However, religious beliefs are seen as more dangerous

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ground, both because believers think other people cannot do justice to them and non-believers are suspicious of indoctrination.Many teachers would see spiritual development - if schools have any role in this - as largely ‘dealt with’ in RE and assembly. In my research, almost all the teachers referred to the link with religion, even when saying that religion should have no place in school! However, I suggest that it is about more basic, wider-ranging needs beyond the boundaries of religion, as seekers-of-meaning. In one teacher’s words, an Anglican in a Roman Catholic school, “If you chopped religion off, you would still have to do the spiritual.”

One problem of making the link too closely with religious traditions is that those opposed to religion itself, or concerned about indoctrination, discard spirituality along with religion. Many adolescents and adults reject religion because of an insistence on adherence to a set of beliefs and doctrines. I am convinced that young children have authentic spiritual experience, separate from beliefs, a distinction I find helpful. Robinson (1977) investigated the memories of hundreds of people about what they called spiritual experiences. This indicated that such childhood experiences were, if not universal, at least very common and had made profound impressions, recalled vividly many decades later.

It is hard to see who is better placed than teachers to equip children to approach questions of meaning and identity thoughtfully, if their parents do not and if they are outside a faith tradition. It is also important, but not easy, for teachers to help children brought up within a faith tradition to make sense of these fundamental questions respecting and drawing on the insights of their faith, as well as helping all children do so without introducing conflict or confusion.

Points for consideration What do you think that RE for young children should entail – Bible stories, facts about other faiths, common religious themes and values, the experience of worship, or none of these? How should we respond to the religious faith of children in a minority in the school - should they have to join in with practices associated with another faith tradition? If you teach in a community school, do you see it as your role to

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support children’s religious faith – and, if so, how do you do it?

Is spiritual anything more than emotional development?

How we learn depends very considerably on our emotions. Think how intense emotion, like fear or grief, stops us learning. Research on how the brain works indicates that intense emotion overcomes some of the inhibitory mechanisms required for our brains to work ‘normally’. Learning depends on appropriate challenges, but too great a challenge, or emotional turmoil, rapidly affects our learning ability. We need both ‘haven and challenge’, to different degrees and at different times. Young children’s emotional needs are so great, and often so immediate, that we judge their level of maturity largely by how well they are able to control their emotional responses. Children’s conscious patterns of learning in particular are disrupted by an inability to process emotional responses appropriately. The younger the child, the more true this seems to be.

Some teachers (of four- and five- year olds) in my research saw little difference between ‘spiritual maturity’ and more general, emotional, maturity. When asked if the idea of spiritual maturity or awareness made any sense to them and, if so, what the features of a spiritually mature child are, to my surprise, most could do so.

Think of a specific child whom you see as spiritually aware or mature: which characteristics lead you to this assessment? Which distinctive elements or qualities are not simply signs of emotional maturity?

Many people equate spiritual experience with intense emotional experience, like falling in love, hearing a favourite piece of music or seeing a beautiful sunset. Emotional and creative activities can be ‘triggers of’ or ‘routes into’ spiritual experience, but they can easily be self-indulgent. To decide whether any experience - however wonderful, trivial or unpleasant - which someone claims as spiritual is authentic, the answer in part relates to whether it is of value. I like

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the response of one teacher I worked with who spoke of the teacher’s role as responding to ‘moments of significance’.All children need the chance to address what is significant to them but we can never entirely know what this consists of. For teachers, large classes and a very busy curriculum exacerbates this. What children feel intensely about may offer good clues. Young children may be upset at what, to an adult, seems something trivial. It is therefore important to:

encourage and listen to children’s questions; attend to them, especially when they are upset.

Helping children to articulate their feelings, and to hear others doing so, for instance in circle times, can help:

the child and those listening to explore together issues of significance;

the teacher to understand the child’s worries and beliefs better.

How does spiritual development relate to moral development?

The teachers in my research linked moral and spiritual development closely but spiritual experience is more than simply learning about right and wrong. Our moral choices and the values we espouse both determine and indicate the sort of people we become.

Our values are central to who we are and how we act. Mass media and advertising offer values based primarily on individual consumption and instant gratification. Their appealing, and carefully manipulated, messages promote transient values. Spiritual experience challenges children to consider longer-term, maybe eternal, values. Our culture tends to see values as individualised, a sort of pick-and-mix, with no commonly agreed basis. But values need a basis beyond individual preference, whatever debate there may be about what this is; maybe religious faith, a common culture, law and regulation or common, universal human values. While this is a complicated debate, neither ‘anything-goes’ or ‘whatever I say’ is

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an adequate basis for values. Judgements about right and wrong must always be based in the values of a community and a tradition.Think how children learn values. Explicit teaching of rules and conscious consideration of values, such as having a ‘value of the month’, are important. The role of stories is easily overlooked. Stories nearly always include a conflict of values and then a resolution, with good ultimately triumphing. Hearing, and thinking about, stories helps children develop their own sense of values. But explicit teaching is only part of the answer. Children learn morality and values primarily by being incorporated into a moral community, by example and being part of a tradition where values are lived. A community’s values are embedded in how people treat each other. All schools have a role in this. However good your mission statement or policies, who we are, as teachers and as people, is far more important. What you say matters; what you do matters more.

All teachers and parents want their children to learn positive values (or say they do). Most people agree on the importance of such values as honesty, respect, justice and loyalty, often considered universal values. But this issue is far from simple. First, what about where the values of a family or culture clash with those of the school? Second, what values mean in practice is often unclear, as they are more culturally dependent than we imagine. Think what justice means in relation to issues like the appropriate punishment for murder or whether people should be free to say what they wish. Third, what about when different values come into conflict with each other? For instance, when one is asked to lie to protect a friend who has done something wrong, loyalty and justice suggest different courses of action. While teachers may wish to keep messages simple, helping children recognise and think through moral dilemmas helps them learn what really matters to them. The specific values we espouse are important, but the message that life is not value-free and that how we act matters is even more so.

Points for consideration How much are values a matter of individual choice? What is the basis of your, and your school’s, values? How does your school demonstrate the values it claims to

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espouse?

Is spiritual experience just about ‘awe and wonder’?

Many adults link spiritual experience strongly with the creative arts and beauty, such as music, a work of art or nature. Activities like art, music and drama are closely associated with the search for meaning because they encourage imagination and offer a different way of knowing and understanding from conscious, rational thought. These can operate at a pre-linguistic level affecting aspects of ourselves of which we may not be conscious. Yet they are very concrete, which is especially important for children. They enable young children to be active participants and to work thoughtfully over time, rather than inviting an instant response.

One phrase teachers often associate with spiritual development is ‘awe and wonder’ - where children experience what is wonderful and mysterious, such as the pattern on a butterfly or the immensity of space. Think briefly why these are important or are considered spiritual. It seems that this is largely because they help to put things into perspective and take us away from a concentration only on ourselves to consider other people and the bigger picture. Spiritual experience helps one gain a sense of perspective and of one’s place in the bigger scheme. Without this, ‘spiritual’ may refer only to what is individual, internal and enjoyable. Most of us associate spiritual experience with what is pleasant and life enhancing - the wild sea, a great speech, the birth of a baby. However, what is most significant must include both these wonderful moments and challenging and difficult experiences like death, loss and separation.

Points for consideration Is the divorce of a child’s parents related to his or her spiritual needs? Is a tragedy like the death of a child a spiritual experience? What is your (adult) response to awful events like Auschwitz? Whatever your answer, what do these tell you about how you

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understand spiritual experience?

Is spiritual experience always pleasant?

What is significant is, inevitably, at times also painful. Rightly we do not think about painful issues all the time, but they are central to who we are and how we fit in. They come to the fore especially at times of illness, bereavement or the start or end of significant relationships. This can be deeply unsettling, often making us re-assess questions of identity, meaning and purpose.

Adults often assume that young children do not consider potentially painful issues. You may know of children not being allowed to attend the funerals of grandparents, or to discuss experiences which adults find painful, because they are ‘too young to understand’. To protect children, we tend to stop them talking about what puzzles them or say that everything will be alright, when (often) it will not.

Children need to make sense of potentially painful situations, like separation, or whether their parents still love them. Not only the events but the fear of them can be very debilitating. Jung described the ‘shadow side’ of our personality, the difficult and troublesome aspects, which keeps re-appearing if suppressed rather than addressed. Precisely because young children find it hard to put unpleasant experiences into perspective, apparently quite minor things may trouble them more than we think. Implicit in thinking of spiritual experience as universal is that it is part of all teachers’ role and responsibility to enable children to explore such issues and not just to pretend that life is always nice and pleasant.

Addressing such issues with children may evoke painful memories for us. In saying that we are protecting children, we often protect ourselves. This is one of the hardest aspects of the teacher’s role. A supportive environment in which teachers can be helped to address potentially painful issues is especially important. It may help to consider what schools, and teachers, can do:

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in general; and when specific incidents occur.Schools can help children prepare for difficult situations. These cannot be anticipated but thinking and talking about difficult but normal situations can help. These might include the death of pets, another child’s illness or the sadness at someone leaving, so that children get used to thinking about how they, and other people, feel and learn a ‘language’ or way of discussing what is upsetting. Encourage and respond to children’s questions. Specific events with local or national media coverage, such as the September 11th

attacks, or the prospect of war, may provide a forum for such discussions, especially with older primary children. Making reference to such events, for instance in assemblies, can help children ask questions if they wish to. Do not imagine that children are unaware, or do not need to make sense, of such events.

It is difficult to know how, and how much, to raise difficult issues and to find the balance between giving children permission to ask questions and intruding. These general points may help:

recognise the specific circumstances of individual children, eg where parents have recently separated or a recent bereavement;

be aware of cultural and religious sensitivities so that, as far as possible, the family’s wishes as you understand them would be respected;

be honest and admit that you do not know the answers rather than offering dishonest but sentimental solutions;

try to imagine how the child is feeling; attend to children’s actual questions.

It is hard to generalise about helping children make sense of significant but painful situations when they arise, because each one is so different. Very often when they occur we feel paralysed by the intensity of our emotions. Some way of talking and thinking about these emotions, and having created a context where they can be thought about together, helps - a bit. But be sensitive to the fact that a child is likely to want to address these, at his or her own pace, maybe through talking or silence, through art or play. So try to find the balance between being unintrusive, but available.

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When really serious situations arise, the school must address them. The case study below of how one school community responded to a child’s death offers some insights into how to approach really tragic and painful situations.

One of the hardest tasks facing any headteacher is to help the school community - staff, parents and children - respond appropriately to a pupil’s death. During the summer holidays, one little girl, a Muslim, in my Church of England first school died in a house fire, together with her older brother. Some of her family, including a cousin, had been in the house but survived. All the school community knew about what had happened, but members of her family, her friends and her class were especially sad at her death.

Our immediate concerns were to:

offer support to the family and the community; be sensitive to their religious and cultural wishes; think how, as a school community, we could address our collective

sadness; support her friends in school to come to terms with this tragedy.

Among other things, we decided to:

seek outside help; find ways to support each other through our pain; be open with parents and children about our sadness; hold a special assembly to express our collective sorrow; enable her friends to talk about their grief, and access professional help

where need be; provide a permanent memorial by creating a special garden.

Three elements may be highlighted: address issues as a large group, maybe involving ritual, as this

helps to give permission for individual conversation, without imposing too much on children less involved;

remember one’s own needs and emotions and those of colleagues;

seek outside help in really difficult situations from professionals such as Educational Psychologists or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

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Working out the implications for teachers

Do young children develop spiritually?

Many people doubt what spirituality means in relation to young children. This, in part, is why we need to see spiritual experience separate from religious beliefs and practices or moral and ethical choices. However, a strong tradition, including the words of Jesus, suggests that young children have qualities and abilities which make them especially open to spiritual experience, with some of these lost or at least suppressed as we move into adulthood.

Earlier I suggested that the term ‘spiritual development’ is problematic. Spiritual ‘development’ does not seem to ‘work’ just like physical or intellectual development, progressing through a series of stages, on an upward gradient. Spiritual experience may be seen as part of a personal journey which teachers and others can enhance, or hold back, and thus part of a process of development. Spiritual development certainly seems more fluid than other sorts of development. We get better at certain techniques and become more mature in many related areas but children have qualities which are lost or harder to re-capture as adults. These qualities include:

joy; curiosity; openness and trust; a lack of self-importance; a sense of mystery and wonder.

Many factors leads us as adults to lose or suppress these. We become more fixed in our beliefs. In most areas, this is helpful as it makes it easier to generalise and to discard unimportant information. However, it may make adults more reliant on one approach to learning and reluctant to ask very basic questions. Children’s

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willingness to ask naïve but searching questions may make them especially open to spiritual experience. A wish to avoid embarrassment may make adults less open and trusting. A desire for status and power may make us more self-important. Cynicism may result in our suppressing a sense of mystery and wonder.

Points for consideration Do young children have other (positive) qualities and abilities which we lose, as we become adults? What causes adults to lose these?

What can we learn by looking at very young children?

In my research I considered what the psychoanalytic tradition can teach us. Bowlby’s (1965) work with infants highlights the importance of very early relationships and, especially, what he calls attachment to the mother. How this attachment is formed affects us throughout our lives more deeply than we tend to recognise. In a very real sense, early relationships and love make us who we are.

Young children need to develop a secure sense of self or ego. This involves moving away from being centred on one’s own needs, as young children are. They need to learn to understand the world ‘as if’ from other people’s perspectives. In encountering and understanding difference and diversity, children are enabled gradually to learn about what is common to humanity and what makes each individual distinctive.

Even very young children try to make sense of the world. In Bruner’s (1996) words, children are agents, active learners constantly altering their framework of understanding to try to incorporate new, often puzzling, experience. We grow, we find meaning in life, and security in ourselves, by actively understanding and solving personal problems. It may help to think of the story - often called the personal narrative - that we tell about ourselves. As new events occur, we tell

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a new story. We do this throughout our lives, but especially so as children, because their understanding is less fixed, more fluid.Do not forget the importance of play. Winnicott, a psychoanalyst, writes (1988: 66), ‘it is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and to use the whole personality. It is only in being creative that the individual discovers the self.’ Play gives the chance to:

re-arrange the world without having to bear all the consequences;

pretend to be someone or somewhere different; explore feelings and responses to new situations; ask one’s own questions at one’s own pace.

All children need to play to understand themselves. Drama offers many similar opportunities. Creative people are usually those still able to be playful right into adulthood.

The National Curriculum and the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies emphasise conscious learning deliberately engineered by the teacher. This is important, but much of our learning happens less consciously and explicitly. Young children, especially, learn directly, kinaesthetically and visually, rather than just through language. Many of our most important beliefs are learnt through role-modelling and habit, by-passing consciousness. Have we not all seen how children pick up what we do - including annoying habits - much more than what we say? The family’s and school’s culture and environment are especially important in implicit learning. This is not like the automatic response drilled into a soldier, but more like ‘this is how we respond in this sort of situation’. Prior experience and the context helps to provide a structure which guides us towards appropriate actions and away from inappropriate

Rather than seeing development as a series of stages, Donaldson (1993) suggests that young children add to a repertoire of ‘modes’ of learning, but with some earlier modes remaining appropriate for different situations throughout life. We can help children and adults access different modes of learning. For instance, certain traditions,

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especially in Christianity and Buddhism, emphasise the value of reflection and silence. Think for a moment why this is important.We are often enriched by emptying and doing less, rather than filling ourselves up and trying harder. This can help adults to recover some of the positive qualities of childhood outlined above. We all benefit from silence, and the opportunity simply to be, rather than always to do. Children need the chance for, and the habit of, quiet and reflection rather than constant noise and bombardment of images and information. Although this needs practice, at least initially, and children, especially those who lead chaotic and over-full lives, often find it hard, silence and reflection enables children (and adults):

to be less overwhelmed by immediate emotions and desires; to step out of the busy-ness and pressures of everyday life.

This lessens the dominance of rationality, allowing the unconscious and ‘lateral’ thinking to operate. This moves us away from what is called ‘left-brain’ activity, involving language, analysis, and conscious effort, rather than a ‘right-brain’ approach, based more on emotion, creativity, and making connections. Learning requires space as well as pace. We have all known times when we can’t resolve a problem however hard we try - yet in the morning the solution is obvious. Our unconscious has been at work. This summary is oversimplified but ‘Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind’ (Claxton, 1997) is a fascinating and accessible discussion of learning other than through conscious effort.

Where does all this fit into the curriculum?

Teachers, and teaching, have become dominated by the curriculum. Yet ‘to take Spiritual Development seriously is to recognise that the central purposes of education lie beyond the curriculum’ (Gloucester Diocese: 13). This is not only just a matter of values and ethos, but of how teachers teach and help children learn. While the content of what is taught is important, too much emphasis on this leads often to a concentration on ‘low-level’ factual information. Enabling children to be reflective, creative, curious, playful and critical - sometimes

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included among ‘higher-order’ skills - encourages spiritual experience and greater self-understanding. Ironically, these may be the key to raising academic standards, as well.Potentially, opportunities for spiritual development appear anywhere in the curriculum. The danger is that this too easily means nowhere. Opportunities in particular subject areas include:

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Personaland socialeducation

Assemblyand

CollectiveWorship

ReligiousEducation

English

Artand

Music

PE

Science

Circle time helps children think and talk together on matters of significance and listen to other children’s views. Helping children talk about their feelings makes dealing with difficult situations easier.

Enables a large group to think together about issues of morality, values and significance and to reflect, or pray, perhaps briefly, in silence, or to music. Such gatherings establish/reinforce the school’s values.

When well taught, RE offers children insight into how different people address fundamental questions and religious believers understand and respond to these. This can support and enrich the faith of children from religious families and extend the horizons of others.

Stories, help children makes sense of their lives and internalise values. Poetry is an obvious source of nurturing children’s imagination and helping them see the world from different perspectives.

Creative subjects offer children different, reflective ways of making sense of their experiences. It is important for children to appreciate other people’s creativity and be imaginative and creative themselves.

Opportunities include expressing oneself through movement and learning to work together. One much under-rated area is drama where children can experience what it is like to feel, or be, someone else.

Can help children to recognise patterns and relationships, experience the mystery of space and the natural world and ask fundamental questions about the start and ending of life.

This list is far from complete, leaving out important areas such as maths, history, geography and ICT. In maths, the exploration of pattern, or ideas like infinity, encourage consideration of the bigger

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picture and the mysterious. In history, or geography, to empathise with people from other times and cultures is vital in understanding who we are and how we fit in.

Choose one of these subjects and write some activities/ approaches you think can contribute to spiritual development. You do not have to be an expert to recognise these possibilities. Indeed, being an expert can make a teacher concentrate too much on answers rather than questions.

Think also which aspects or approaches do not encourage spiritual development. Often they are those where the answer is pre-determined and children’s curiosity and imagination is not stimulated. Such activities can be worthwhile, but they must not dominate the curriculum.

How can teachers plan for spiritual development?

It is difficult to plan for what may happen at any time. So the classroom environment is vital, especially its culture and expectations. For instance, if children:

do not respect each other’s views, other children are unlikely to express their feelings;

are constantly bombarded with information, there is too little space for reflection; and

are discouraged from being curious, imaginative, or co-operative, they are unlikely to develop these abilities.

However good your written plans, remember the importance of creating the right context. There are numerous opportunities in what most teachers do anyway. But planning also involves looking out for, and creating, opportunities, being sufficiently flexible and brave to follow them when they arise and giving children permission to explore, sometimes alone, often together, what really matters.

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Record situations and experiences through which you hope to stimulate children to ask the sorts of question we have considered.

I am not suggesting any particular written planning format. However, for medium-term plans, it is worth thinking about opportunities in different subject areas as above and discussing the possibilities with other colleagues. This is often more fruitful than doing it alone.

In short-term planning, you need (obviously) to consider content and learning objectives. The challenge is to be sensitive to when ‘moments of significance’ occur and flexible to alter your plan. This requires some courage, but if a child is distressed by bullying, a snowstorm starts or a rainbow appears, surely it is more important to respond to these than stick doggedly to subtraction or the magic e?

Do all children need the same approach?

All children have a set of common needs. Some groups may have additional needs, often because their home-life meets these only partially and may at times need different approaches or challenges.

Children with special needs vary greatly according to need. Those who find learning to read and write difficult, may find creative subjects especially important in building self-esteem and identity. Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties are likely to find reflection on the consequences of their actions, empathy for other children and quiet reflection hard. Opportunities to develop these in a safe environment through play or activities which bring success and self-esteem may help.

Most classes will contain children from families where relationships at home have broken down. Addressing many, often quite small, matters sensitively - for example when working on families or sending letters home - helps the child not to feel excluded or uncomfortable about the family background. They may wish, but should not be forced, to discuss these relationships individually.Schools cannot resolve the problems of children from very troubled backgrounds, such as asylum seekers, looked-after children, or

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those from violent or uncaring homes; but school may be the safest place they know. They too need appropriate challenges, but if a child is hungry or scared of violence or abuse this is likely to cause distress and hinder learning. In particular, be careful to avoid asking them to talk about distressing incidents except when they wish to.

The needs of those from homes where religion is important can be overlooked, especially in community schools or where, in church schools, they are not Christians. While children need to learn that faith traditions express their understanding in different ways, the school’s role is to support and enrich the understanding developed at home. By recognising and valuing faith, teachers can support this, even where they do not share it.

Since identity depends so much on culture, home and school may often present children from minority ethnic backgrounds with differing expectations. Teachers have an important role in ensuring that children are incorporated appropriately into the school culture, while celebrating their own heritage and cultural roots.

How boys’ and girls’ needs differ is a contentious area arousing strong feelings. Boys, in general, are often encouraged not to express emotion or vulnerability and often find it harder to be reflective. Girls may subtly learn to be passive, or to focus too much on their appearance. Such traits may work against an integrated and secure personality. Girls’ greater ability to make intimate relationships may make them more open to spiritual experience.

Points for consideration How do you make provision in this respect for the children with special educational needs in your class? Would you add any other groups? In what ways, if any, is spiritual experience different for boys and girls?

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Reflecting on the whole-school implications

Where does spiritual development fit into legislation and the inspection framework?

In the 1944 Education Act, LEAs were charged to ‘contribute towards the spiritual, moral, mental and physical development of the community…’ What was meant by the spiritual was (deliberately) not too closely defined. The 1988 Act said schools were ‘to provide for the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development’ of children. The 1992 Act referred to the more familiar ‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural’. All this legislation placed the ‘spiritual’ very prominently, without quite saying what it entailed. The important difference after 1992 was that all schools were to be inspected on this. Trying to establish a common understanding, among and between, teachers and inspectors, of what it meant became urgent.

The series of guidance documents which followed in the 1990s varied in quality and impact and were only partially successful in establishing this understanding. One problem is that making such judgements remained, and will always remain, largely subjective, which sits uneasily with the evidence-based approach of the Ofsted Framework for Inspection. However, inspectors make judgements about the provision for spiritual development in all schools, as part of the regular inspection process. For Church Aided schools, there is a separate denominational inspection of collective worship and Religious Education, which also comments on spiritual, moral, cultural and social development. For Voluntary Controlled schools, this is the same, except that RE is not included.

Spiritual development affects and involves every aspect of school life and the whole school community. Remember how vital support staff, caretakers, lunchtime staff and secretaries can be in this. A school’s ethos is often implicit and intangible, but easily recognised, even on a short visit, in such things as how adults speak to children, visitors are welcomed, and children’s work is displayed. While an

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inspection report about the provision for spiritual development can be valuable in suggesting issues to be addressed, this is based on a snapshot judgement. Self-evaluation is especially important to assess and address implicit, less measurable issues, such as how a school community cares for its members, how adults attend to individual children’s questions and concerns and the relationships between adult and adult, adult and child and between children.

What are the implications for professional development?

I have emphasised that who we are matters more than what we say. Children soon recognise a dissonance between words and actions. The headteacher’s leadership is especially important in this respect. A head who attends to the needs of individuals - staff, parents and children - encourages similar behaviour. One who takes difficult and puzzling questions seriously helps others to do so. Offering, and receiving, support and praise, or finding time for reflection and quiet, nurtures oneself and offers an example to others.

Among the qualities which teachers need to enhance children’s spiritual development are sensitivity, flexibility, an ability to live with not knowing all the answers and a willingness to address difficult issues, none of them qualities easily measured, and all better nurtured than ‘taught’. Unless teachers are able to explore their own beliefs and values, including what is potentially painful, they will find it hard to help children do so. Some will find this harder than others, especially younger teachers, given McCreery’s research which suggests that those who have had children themselves, or been through difficult experiences, may approach spiritual development more confidently. Education for spiritual development is not a risk-free or value-neutral zone. Relationships of mutual support and permission to address difficult or unfamiliar issues are vital.

The most important professional development activity is for teachers to talk with other colleagues, in staff and planning meetings, about what spiritual development entails and what approaches they have adopted and might try. Knowing where to start and getting started can be daunting. Courses and visits to other schools to learn about other schools’ approaches can help, and inspection may pinpoint

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specific issues. A sympathetic outsider - for church schools maybe a diocesan adviser - often helps, especially at first or where sensitive issues are to be addressed. It is usually best to start with safer areas, but at some point you will touch on sensitive matters.

Writing a policy can be a useful way in to establishing common goals and highlighting aspects already in place. However, like all policies those on spiritual development too easily gather dust. What counts is the time put into discussion and into thinking about what has been, and can be, done.

Whatever you do, do not ignore spiritual development because you are too busy. Even if you come up with quite different conclusions, try to discuss and evaluate regularly what really matters. Too often, we discuss what is trivial but seems urgent, and put off what matters but does not need immediate attention.

What are the implications for schools serving particular types of community?

Spiritual development is important for all children and all schools, not just Church schools or those teachers teaching RE. The search for meaning, purpose and identity is part of our common humanity, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach, one universal menu, as all schools and the children in them have diverse needs. Sue Matthew, head of a Church of England (Aided) primary school in central Oxford, writes:

St. Ebbe’s serves an ethnically and socially diverse community. Our families fit every description of what a family might be. Some live in flats and houses, others bed and breakfast, some in university colleges. As a Church school our aims and ethos are based on Christian Values. Our Trust Deed makes it clear we are to serve our community so we welcome children from many faiths: Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and those not following any religion.

We see spirituality in broad terms: certainly not in the narrow definition of religious faith. It is to do with relationships, how we treat each other - all of us in our school community. Children are seen as full people with rights

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and responsibilities – everyone contributing towards making our community work positively and inclusively. Crucial to this is respecting diversity – knowing that each person’s faith and ideas matter to them and therefore to all of us. This includes discussions of difficult and painful issues such as death, family breakdown and differing expectations at home and school.

At the heart of this is “listening”: to children’s concerns, joys, needs, and troubles - both individually and in groups through “circle time” and assemblies. But spirituality is embedded in all discussions across the curriculum, because relationships are key - and always present. Respect for ideas and each child’s worth is part of all our school life not just limited to certain “spirituality” sessions.

Below are some reflections on possible opportunities and challenges in different types of school. Schools are always more complex places than they appear - if we take the trouble to find out.

Multi-faith schools provide great opportunities for children to learn about diversity and particular challenges for teachers in being sensitive to what is very important to families but possibly unfamiliar to teachers.

Urban schools may offer rich cultural opportunities, but often include more children who lead less settled, more chaotic lives with less stable family and other relationships.

In homogeneous schools, it may be easier to establish settled traditions, but less so to raise the awareness of children about cultural and religious diversity.

Small schools may foster closer relationships, but larger schools can enable children to experience a wider range of approaches and relationships.

Points for consideration

What are the particular challenges and opportunities presented in your school community and context? How much do you think your school should challenge the prevailing values of society and of the local community?

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What are the specific implications for Church schools?

All schools can, and do, offer opportunities for spiritual experience and exploration. Highlighting what is specific to Church schools is tricky, partly because many community schools provide well for spiritual development, partly because all schools vary in their approach and reflect their community’s needs, values and aspirations. This includes how Church schools understand their role and seek to fulfil their mission.

Central to Church schools is a belief in the importance of religious faith. In an increasingly secular world many teachers, consciously or otherwise, avoid any discussion of how religious faith can influence our understanding, with Religious Education often consisting largely of factual information or a bland encouragement to be kind - or not done at all. Worry about indoctrination rouses great debate and concern among teachers. In Church schools, it is perhaps easier to explore an understanding of the world through the stories of faith, and the lens of religious faith - one reason why Church schools are often popular with parents of faiths other than Christianity. RE, imaginatively taught, may be especially valuable in Church schools as a forum to ask fundamental questions from a standpoint other than that of secular values. Exploration and questioning rather than commitment to particular beliefs are what teachers of young children should encourage most.

Most Church schools’ mission involves introducing children to a tradition of worship. They have access to an active worshipping tradition, for instance by the involvement of local clergy and church members. Collective worship is a requirement in all schools. A tradition and community of values and morality can and should include introducing children to some understanding of worship. This includes occasions where a group addresses together what is significant, often in the context of ritual, reflection and respect, rather than that of a religious service as such. But Church schools may be able to be more relaxed about worship. In one sense, worship can only be experienced from within, but involvement in collective worship can introduce children to important, often unfamiliar,

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experiences like silence, liturgy and ritual. This helps to support children from church-going families as well as providing for others some understanding of worship as an expression of belief in which they may, in the future, participate fully.

It may be easier in Church schools to discuss the fundamental issues related to meaning, identity and purpose, as they may reach the top of the agenda more easily than elsewhere. The denominational inspection encourages schools to focus on these aspects specifically.

Some Church of England schools emphasise involvement in Christian worship and faith strongly, others less so. Some are very similar to community schools, others have a very distinctive religious ethos. However, most see it as central to their mission to introduce children to the language and tradition of faith and to support children who are members of faith communities.

Roman Catholic schools are, in many ways, part of a distinct cultural entity, where the practice of liturgy, worship, beliefs and morality are seen less separately than presented here. The tradition into which Catholics are incorporated involves school, parish, the wider Catholic community and the Church itself so that even very young children are included within Church membership. Developing and supporting children’s faith is central to the Catholic schools’ mission.

Since I am not a Catholic and have only spent relatively short times as a researcher in Catholic schools, I make any observations with some hesitation. However, as an outsider, it seems to me that Catholic schools are very inclusive of those who are part of the school community, from a young age, though young children may often be involved in what they do not understand. One result is an openness and warmth in relationships. Often, there seems greater openness about discussing difficult topics, like death and illness. Against this, the link with Church membership and specific moral positions may narrow the scope for curiosity, often leading adolescents to reject the whole ‘package’ of religion.

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One feature visible in the best Church schools, though not only there, is the sense of a moral community, where children learn about values and relationships above all through the expectation that ‘this is how we do things here’. This becomes in a sense a tradition, a continuity providing a structure, both implicit and explicit, within which the search for meaning and identity is encouraged. This is especially important as the more familiar structures of home, church and community, provide this less than in the past.

Points for consideration

How closely are your beliefs about religion reflected in how you teach? What do you see as positive and negative aspects of Church schools? What can they more easily than other schools? How does your school provide the structure of what is described here as a moral community?

How did one school start to develop a whole-school approach?

Shahne Vickery, the Schools’ Adviser for the Gloucester Diocese, describes how one school started to develop a whole-school approach:

‘St Catherine’s Church of England Primary School is a rural village school in the Forest of Dean, not a particularly affluent area. Of the 77 pupils, 33 are on the Special Needs Register, with the percentage of children entitled to free school meals above the national average.

A Denominational Inspection identified some very positive ways in which the school was expressing its Christian foundation and a variety of opportunities that the staff were creating to foster and develop the children’s spiritual life, but identified the following key issue: ‘To bring together the many features promoting pupils’ spiritual development in a written statement to complete the policies on pupils’ personal development.’ The head prepared an action plan in consultation with the

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staff and governing body. Shortly afterwards, I was asked to lead two twilight INSET meetings to: establish a working definition for spiritual development meaningful for

the school; develop a whole school policy for the provision of opportunities for

spiritual development; review existing examples of good practice and find ways to build on

these to extend the provision across the school more systematically.

I began the first session by outlining a brief history and explanation of how thinking about children’s spirituality has developed in recent years. We looked at materials produced by the Christian Education Movement (CEM) to focus on the kind of environment most conducive to facilitating children’s spiritual development, e.g. where pupils are: valued as individuals and taught to value others; fostered in their emotional lives; given opportunities to express their questions, insights, wonder,

uncertainty and faith; encouraged to set aside moments for reflection and group discussion

of the nature, value and worth to life and their own development of what is being studied.

CEM suggests a range of experiences that might contribute to pupils’ spiritual development: personal reflection stillness and silence recognising and expressing their innermost thoughts, feelings, beliefs being enabled to express insights creatively and imaginatively sharing and exploring deeper questions reflecting on the challenging experiences of life and considering

different responses to these listening to, learning about and valuing the beliefs, values and feelings

of others exploring lives which exemplify qualities universally valued developing an understanding that individuals can change things for

better or worse raising awareness of the hurt caused by unkind behaviour experiencing and valuing the natural world and their part in it valuing and encouraging a sense of wonder and mystery exploring beauty, order, pattern and purpose in the natural world celebrating and being celebrated.

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I then shared some ways in which I have used particular texts, music, artefacts and other resources as stimuli to provide opportunities for these. At the end of the session I asked the teachers to review the past two terms’ teaching and identify some moments that they felt had been significant in promoting children’s spiritual development in their class.

The second session, a week later, was a chance for the teachers to share some of these experiences together. At the end the teachers felt that they were now in a position to develop a policy document that would be meaningful and useful. A member of staff was elected to work on this with the head. It was decided that rather than developing a separate audit of opportunities for spiritual development, the policy itself would contain a variety of practical examples of how individual members of staff had created such opportunities with their classes.’

Points for consideration What surprises you about the approach adopted by this school? Should schools involve other groups in this work - parents, Governors, non-teaching staff, children? If so, how? What, if anything, do you think this school needs to do in six Months’ time?

Looking beneath the surface, beyond the apparent

Throughout this journey I have tried to offer signposts and markers to inspire you to look at what you do already and to consider what you might do differently, responding with, ‘yes, I have always thought that but I had never quite seen it like that, or considered all those elements linked to spiritual development’. Certain elements may puzzle or annoy you. Some questions, such as what integration means, have only been touched on. However, even where you disagree I hope your perspective on spiritual development will be enriched and that you will see spiritual development as the responsibility of all teachers and the entitlement of all children.

The pressure of the current standards agenda often seems to leave little room for spiritual development, especially the lack of time devoted to the foundation subjects. The result is often superficiality and over-insistent pace. Sometimes we need to do less so that

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children learn more. Rather than doing different things, it is a matter of doing similar things differently, and giving so that children have the chance to explore identity, meaning and values.

One paradox is that much of what teachers do can be both very ordinary and yet very significant- like a small comment or an enthusiasm shared. This is why adults often remember teachers less for what they said than for a particular incident or personal response. This entails a perspective on children’s learning which:

emphasises relationships and interdependence; gives permission to explore what is hard to understand; helps children to look beneath the surface, ‘beyond the

apparent’; addresses the most significant aspects of existence.

It is tempting to end with a neat conclusion or a story - but that would be too tidy. Instead, I recall moments from my own teaching, which seemed to take me - and the children - into something beyond our everyday concerns and expectations:

Emma transfixed by the beauty of spiders’ webs glistening on an autumn morning,Daniel railing against the unfairness of someone calling hima racist name,Paul realising when he saw a man-trap in a museum that what hehad heard about in history had happened to real people,Gemma asking me during an assembly what my father’s first name had been,a group of children gasping as they first stepped into the church at Long Melford,and many more,

all real children, all ordinary, but all special. At the time, I did not think of these as related to spiritual experience - but now I would. By understanding spiritual experience in new ways, maybe we can, as teachers, extend such opportunities and enrich the children’s responses to those questions which, as we try to answer them, help us to understand ourselves.Bibliography

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Best R, (ed) (1996) Education, Spirituality and the Whole Child, London: CassellBowlby J, (1965) Child care and the growth of love, London: PenguinBruner J, (1996) The Culture of Education, Cambridge: Harvard University PressClaxton G, (1997) Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, London: Fourth EstateDfEE (1999) All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education Report chaired by Professor Ken Robinson, Sudbury: DfEEDonaldson M, (1993) Human minds: an exploration, London: PenguinErricker C, et al (1997) The Education of the Whole Child, London: CassellFarrer F, (2000) A Quiet Revolution, London: RiderGloucester Diocese, (2003) Section 23 guidelines on spiritual development, (available by phoning 01452 410022)Goleman D, (1995) Emotional intelligence: why it can matter more than IQ, New York: BantamHay D, and Nye R, (1998) The Spirit of the Child, London: Fount,International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, published three times a yearHull J, (1998) Utopian Whispers – Moral, Religious and Spiritual Values in Schools, Norwich: Religious and Moral Education PressKimes Myers B, (1997) Young Children and Spirituality, London: RoutledgeLiving Values An international educational programme in values education, www.livingvalues.net or www.hci-online.com for details.Mackley J, (1997) Looking inwards, looking outwards, Derby: Christian Education MovementRobinson E, (1977) The original vision: a study of the religious experience of Childhood, Oxford: Religious Experience Research UnitSmith D, (1999) Making sense of spiritual development, Nottingham: The Stapleford CentreStapleford Centre, (2002) Opening Windows - spiritual development in the primary school, Nottingham: The Stapleford CentreStone M, (1993) Don’t just do something, sit there, Norwich: Religious and Moral Education PressWinnicott D, (1980) Playing and Reality, Harmondsworth: PenguinWright A, (1998) Spiritual Pedagogy, Abingdon: Culham College InstituteWright A, (2000) Spirituality and Education, London: RoutledgeFalmerZohar D, and Marshall I, (2000) Spiritual Intelligence- the Ultimate Intelligence, London: Bloomsbury

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