Visit Plan to a place of worship for Year 4

Location: St. Alban’s the Matyr, Eastfield, Northampton, NN3.

Religion: Christianity

Purpose: To develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of a church being a place of worship and potentially a Christian’s ‘special place’. Throughout this visit the children will be able to experience with their own eyes what a church looks like and with the support of the church’s Reverend children can have appropriate questions about the church answered. Additionally, the children will also be able to see and discover valuable assets to a church and what is used and why during church ceremonies (i.e. for services such as on Sundays, or funerals and christenings) such as church bells and hymn books.

School-policy requirements:

COST – The church will not charge anything but the school will donate funding towards the church’s redevelopment plans as a ‘thank-you’ for catering pupil’s on this visit.

SAFEGUARDING:o Child-protection to remain in place at all times.o Parents and/or carers will be provided letter two weeks before the trip which will

provide details of the trip, as well as departure and arrival back to school times. Slip return form will be providing clearly stating that this must be ticked, signed and dated to whether a child can go on the visit or not and must be returned 5 days before the trip date to the class teacher.

o Any incidents (i.e. abuse, injuries) must be immediately reported to and recorded by class teacher who will take necessary action and report to the head-teacher of the school. Necessary procedures i.e. social-services, police etc. will follow if required.

o CRB/DBS checks for all staff working with child. Certificate must be given to the school and then passed on to the class teacher at least 48 hours before the visit.

o Class teacher is party leader and all arrangements must be discussed, approved and signed off by head teacher prior to the trip. Three other members of staff must be present, with at least one member of staff first-aid trained.

o Ration of teacher to student (28 pupils in Y4) – 1:7. All staff will have register of all pupils and register for their group. Register to be taken before departure, on arrival, during break, departure from church and arrival back at school.

o Pupils will have emergency contact of class teacher and the school stickers clearly visible on school uniform/jackets whilst walking.

o Any medical needs must be raised, considered and noted by parents, carers and all staff. No child is able to go on the trip without the medical form returned, given during the letter informing about the trip. One member of staff must have information and carry

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medication and must be trained to give treatment or medication i.e. injection if child suffers nut allergy.

o Risk assessment must be completed and approved before trip. Includes journey to and from.

o All children must be made aware of behaviour and expectations of the whole trip, including ensuring respect is given when in the church i.e. no touching unless approved.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS – No offensive clothing (i.e. jackets). Uniform must be clean and children must respect religion and place of worship.

FACILITIES – Toilets are at location but are by the church hall (separate building). Member of staff must be with child as they make journey to and from toilets.

Involvement of host: Reverend will be involved in all meetings about the trip, including planning. Reverend will work in partnership with class teacher about activities however will lead talks and tour around the church for the children. However, anything that is to be said must be discussed and agreed with class teacher before trip so no unnecessary or inappropriate (i.e. biased) information is given. Feedback to and from Reverend will be given for future improvements.

Activity:

Pre-learning:

The children in RE have been studying ‘special places’ which includes places of worship for religions. Within our RE lessons the children have explored what they think is meant by a ‘special place’ which involved them designing their own and with the support of English (writing) and DT, the children produced their own ‘special place’. Now the children are investigating ‘special places’ including places of worship for religion which has begun with Christianity. The children in their previous RE lesson has learnt that most Christian’s have a church as place of worship and prior to this trip the children begun an enquiry into “What is a church and why is it important?” The children discussed what they thought a church was and after observing a photograph the children then further discussed what they expected it to be like. The children then built up their own enquiries in groups they would like to take further after looking at photographs of parts of the church. These will be taken forward on the trip.

The children were also given the opportunity to prepare questions to ask the Reverend however these have been approved and agreed on prior to the trip.

On visit:

The children begin with a tour around the church and then in their groups they complete the activity book which includes sketching a diagram of the inside of a church, the place of a font, observing a hymn book etc. All activities have been built from the children’s own enquiries about the church. Roughly should be 30-45 minutes. These will be used as a guide for the post-learning activity.

Short break (10 minutes).

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‘A Sunday service’ – Reverend will lead a ‘mock’ Sunday service where the children will hear a reading, sing a hymn and experience a prayer (if permission has been given by parents and carers). Children are able to experience what happens i.e. using prayer mats and hymn books). Roughly 20 minutes.

Q&A session with Reverend. Opportunity to ask questions to help with enquiries and extend/enhance subject knowledge. Roughly 15-20 minutes.

Post-learning

Discussion will follow with the class about what they learnt, what they found the most interesting etc.

Children to create own ‘brochure’ about a church for children of their own age. With curricular links to Music, children create their own hymn about an aspect of life or

emotions. Children at the end of the topic will have studied the different places of worship for religions

and will participate in a class assembly which tells other children of each place of worship.

Cross-curricular links:

English – Reading, writing, speaking and listening;

Art and Design – Stained-glass windows – devise their own based on element i.e. line, colour, shape etc.

Music – Create their own hymn with instruments and/or lyrics.

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