Shap Journal 2001/2002

Living Community

Exploring Community

Maggie Everett

I love Friday afternoons!

I have to confess that when, at the end of the summer
term last year, I discovered my timetable for this year
meant that I would be teaching 8.4a I was not very
happy. * Teaching a group only once a week and on a
Friday afternoon is never very easy, but faced with the
prospect of this group... my heart sank.

Now, after two terms of 8.4a's company, I have learned
the error of my ways and willingly admit to the fact that
usually these lessons are the highlight of my week.

How has this occurred? I am no super teacher, nor am
I God's gift to RE teaching, but we have learnt how to
work together and developed a sense of 'community'
which, I suspect, has paid far more dividends for me
than the group. I do not think that any of this group will
ever 'set the world on fire' through their knowledge of
religion, but I think they have taught me a number of
lessons that I would like to share with you.

First of all we have a set ritual for our time together.
Right from the start of the Autumn term I arranged the
room so that there were enough seats around a group
of tables for all of us (and any support staff who joined
us) to sit together. This is our time for talking as well as
the time when the register is taken. My personal
idiosyncrasy is to call all pupils 'ladies and gentlemen'!
Following on from this the register with this group
means going through the list addressing each person as
'Mister' or 'Miss'. Now the ritual has become one where
each pupil has a turn (alphabetically done has become
the only way to avoid squabbles!) at taking the register
and ticking my mark book.

Next comes the talking. This has developed into some
fascinating discussions at times where the views
expressed about life and questions about God and
religion have demonstrated that in spite of literacy
weaknesses, there are many who have as much insight
as those deemed 'more able'. Many teenagers present
the perennial queries about 'who made God?' 'Why do
people suffer?' 'How can God exist if you can't see him?'
This group is no exception and they have certainly kept
me on my toes! There is I believe a danger for all of us
to underestimate the ability of pupils who have been
labelled by the educational system as having learning
difficulties. Such 'difficulties' may present themselves in
a struggle with literacy but not in their ability to think!
Therefore, the challenge I have to respond to is: how to
stretch and develop the understanding and spiritual
development of these pupils without giving them tasks
which are beyond their level of skills development.

At times our discussions have lasted for more than half
the lesson, which again demonstrates that once interest
has been ignited, it is possible to 'go places'! One of the
things that has been a positive gain, has been their
willingness to listen to each other. Definitely one of the
benefits of the approach our SENCO takes to developing
the groups with whom he works in Year 7! Whilst there
have been a couple of occasions when the interest of a
couple of the group has waned, there have also been
times when we have digressed, positively, from the
original topic!

The other week I initiated a discussion about
community. Part of our syllabus expects us to cover
aspects of the Sikh faith and so we began by considering
how we would recognise members of the Sikh
community and why such 'badges' of belonging have
become ways of recognising the community. The story of
Guru Gobind Singh establishing the Khalsa was told and
we had fun acting out the 'killing' of the Beloved Five.
When the Amrit was stirred by 'Guru Gobind Singh's'
'wife' everyone wanted a taste until the bowl was nearly
up-ended in the arguments as to who was going first.
Naturally the Five 'K's came out! Simon was the most
keen to let 'madam' try to tie a turban on him and was
then all set to go and parade his new look in front of our
SENCO! Subsequently everyone wanted a 'go' and the
laughter that ensued brought the lesson to a chaotic
close.

The start of the next lesson included pleas to try on the
turban again. Instead there was a reluctant acceptance
that we had to discuss other things first. I put a set of
fluorescent cards on the board (what did we do before
'blu-tack'?) with the Punjabi word on one set, the
English word on another and an illustration on the last
set. We read them all through and then I muddled them
up. Stuart wanted a go until he got one wrong and then
he got annoyed, Lisa managed them all correctly and by
then it was time to hand out the sets I had prepared
earlier. The object of the game (based on the idea of
pairs) was to turn over the set of three cards: e.g.
Kirpan, and a picture of it. Being allowed to work in
pairs or threes is fine until minor squabbles arise. Sam,
our support assistant, worked with two groups of girls
and David helped Darren. Tammy and Jenny finished
first and were content to have another go until some of
the others had caught up.

Bringing everyone back together around the table is not
always an easy task at the end of the lesson. However a
promise of handling the turban and the other artefacts
again meant it took less time than normal! Homework
is sometimes a difficult thing to set, so this time I asked
them to look out for different ways in which clothing
makes people stand out in a crowd ... giving the example
of uniforms. What would they come up with for the next
lesson?

Naturally our next lesson started off with our 'routine'
and then the discussion led onto the homework. Yes,
there were the usual comments one would expect:
"What homework?" and "I wasn't here last week" but
one or two had thought about it and we talked about
saris and I showed them a shalwar kameez I just
happened to have kept on the coat hooks from another
lesson. Their surprise that I actually owned one was
enormous and I had to answer the usual questions such
as do you really wear it? Why have you got it? As well
as "can I try it on?" from both girls and boys! Next we
talked about how we show that we belong to different
groups. Uniform was a key point of discussion, "Why do
we have to wear ties and you don't Madam?" being
amongst the more disgruntled comments! This led us on
to talking about badges and I asked them to think about
how we as a class that meets on a Friday afternoon,
could be identified as a community. We talked about the
things we do together and how we have changed from
being a class that meets on a Friday afternoon to a
group that has certain accepted traditions, and rituals.
I posed the question: 'how could we become more of a
community?' and outlined key aspects of community.
Returning to the topic of symbols of belonging, they set
to work on designing a badge for us after a lengthy
discussion and vote on the name we should have. "Cool
gang" was very popular, but came a poor runner up in
the end to the name that was destined to be ours... The
Rude Gang! Towards the end of the lesson we all sat
around to view the results of their labours. Even those
who were far from budding artists had made a good
effort and there were three that were considered the
best. It was Gavin's art work that won the day and (after
a little editing!) our badge was chosen.

Last week we moved onto the topic of rules. After a
discussion which covered such ideas as 'What would
happen if we had not rules?'; 'Why are rules there in the
first place?' 'What rules do you think are good or bad?',
we agreed that our rules would include doing some
work every week (there are times when the leader of the
community has to make unpleasant decisions!), playing
a game at least every other week, some reading and
writing would be done (stop groaning Simon) and we
would try to be polite to each other all the time (yes
Stuart, that does include you and Gavin).

Our next task in a couple of weeks will be to design our
own 'Rude Gang' book as a book related activity for
Book Week. I wonder what stories and ideas will find
their way into it?

* Classes are set according to ability with 8.4a being the
'least able' academically. Several of the pupils are
statemented and they are deemed to be a group of pupils who
possess moderate learning difficulties. Additionally some of
the group have behavioural difficulties.