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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Tuesday, 18 February 2014. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
CHILDREN faced big questions during investigative RE lessons at Chesterton CE Primary School.
Diocesan RE Adviser, Jo Fageant, met teachers to formulate a new, cross curricular project, exploring in Key Stage 1 whether Jesus has the power to change people's lives, using biblical texts including the Road to Damascus.
In Key Stage 2, they explored the burning bush and were given a commission from God:
"Looking down on the world I feel dispirited to see so much sadness in the world that I created. It was not meant to be like this. I see my people suffering at the hands of nature but also at the hands of man."
God asked the children to report back to him their findings. Years Three and Four explored religion in Britain in the time of the Tudors and then through investigation of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
Years 5 and 6 found out about religion in the Holy Land learning about the Crusades and the modern Arab/Israeli conflict. The children came up with thoughtful responses.
Adam said: "This has been one of the best topics we've worked on because it was exploring a big question that linked together subjects I like, history, geography and RE. We learned about Greek gods when we were in Year 3 but this project has helped me to understand more about Greek history and conflicts in the Holy Land involving Romans and Jews.
We also learned about the Crusades and compared all this history with the modern situation in Syria."
Emma said: "I most enjoyed learning about the Arab/Israeli conflict. I've seen things about it on the news but never really knew what it was about. Finding out about it was so interesting and how people's different religious beliefs were not making them behave well towards one another."
Lottie in Year 4 said: "'Protestants' and 'Catholics' are just labels. The charities that try to help want people to know that Jesus didn't want that, he said faith was important."