Spirituality and Spiritual Development
Spiritual Development and Spirituality
As a church school and a place where as members of the Holy Trinity school family, we work together to make a difference, supporting each other to become the best that we can be, we aim to create a culture of wellbeing and nurture; a place where children can explore who they are and what matters to them.
Spirituality relates to fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life which affect everyone, and is not dependent on any specific religion. Spiritual development needs to be understood within the context of our relationships with ourselves, each other, the world and beyond.
Spiritual development is also about supporting the children to be able to develop the language to talk about life (and the feelings that accompany life): its great times, its difficult times and times that are happening right now. To help these discussions, we have introduced to the children the language of ‘Wows’ (the great times), ‘Ows’ (the difficult times) and ‘Nows’ (the times that are happening right now).
Understanding spiritual development and spirituality can be difficult as it is not something that we can physically touch. To help with this understanding, our agreed definition of spirituality is:
“Spirituality is not something we can see; it is something we feel inside ourselves. It is about awe and wonder, asking questions (even when things are difficult), inspiration and being aware of something ‘bigger’ outside of ourselves.”
Imagine a doughnut. This delicious treat is us as a person, our body, mind and spirit, which includes the precious hole in the middle. While the soft, sweet outer ring can be easy to explain, the important inner space is often harder to understand but is equally important to the ‘whole’ of the doughnut.
It is the space inside the doughnut where our spiritual self lives; where our beliefs, faith and ideas support us to share our outer selves with the world. It is space in ourselves where we can think about and reflect on the situations (and feelings that accompany the situations) that are the ‘Wows’, the ‘Ows’ and the ‘Nows’.
Spiritual Development in the Curriculum
We believe that spiritual development should be integrated throughout all aspects of school life. Therefore, we have identified opportunities to promote spiritual development in all curriculum subjects. These include opportunities to explore Wows and Ows.
Nows are explored through the day-to-day ongoing conversations that support children’s emotional development and may involve emotion coaching and, as such, forms an integral part of our Nurturing approach. As the reflection of Nows are reflections of situations that are happening right now, it is important to recognise that a Now may also be Wow or an Ow. Nows may also be explored through specific activities within specific curriculum areas, e.g. how do you feel in response to hearing a specific piece of music.