This is a text-only version of an article first published on Monday, 24 July 2017. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
BISHOP Steven was given a place in the Mastermind chair at a recent REinspired session for primary school children at Lower Early Baptist Church in Reading.
"We have been working with the Year 6 children of Hawkedon Primary School since they were in Foundation," says Julia Jones, Project Director of REinspired. "All of our sessions meet the needs of the RE syllabus.
But this session is different as it is the children who set the questions and we then design the session and activities accordingly. "Some of the pupil's asked questions about when we die.
Leaders introduced the topic using the story of Water bugs and Dragonflies by Doris Stickney which led to deeper discussions in their small groups. The pupils were given an opportunity to respond by using art and craft. Pupils gathered together as one group and Bishop Steven settled himself down into the big 'Mastermind' chair. With two minutes on the clock, how many questions did the bishop answer? He managed to answer 11 fully and successfully before the bell went. Some of the questions included:"What do you do when you wake up?"With a smile he answered, "I get out of bed, have a coffee and I pray. ""Will Jesus always be with you?"The Bishop firmly said, "Yes, including in death and beyond death. ""If God is real why is He not helping people in need?"Thoughtfully, the Bishop answered, "I think God is helping people in need a lot. God calls us to help these people and has given all we need to do so. "The pupils then had the opportunity of questioning the Bishop directly. They eagerly put their hands up. One of the questions was:"If you could change anything in the world what would it be?"Bishop Steven answered, "It would be war and conflict. It's terrible when it happens to people but when its caused by other people I think it's the worst. "As always, our teachers are invited to feedback their comments on every session. Today the Hawkedon teachers reflected, "REinspired have organised this session well with a good pace. We were happy with the delivery, setup and safety of the session. It covered useful aspects of PSMSC (Personal, Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural).
The children were engaged and thoroughly enjoyed questioning the Bishop. "REinspired based at St Nicolas Church, Earley, is an ecumenical group of Christians in Earley and East Reading delivering RE sessions to schools.
We started 15 years ago when one of our primary schools asked a local minister for help with their RE. The Churches Together in Earley and East Reading team embraced the opportunity and REinspired was born. Our aim is to meet the need of the locally agreed RE syllabus and bring RE to life.
Having started with one class in one school, REinspired now supports every class in all 11 primary schools as well as two secondary schools. When we started we had dreams of meeting and working with 'every child, every year, every school'. 15 years later that dream is a reality.
;