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Book a Barnabas RE Day
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Barnabas RE Day themes
Exploring Christianity creatively
Outline of an RE Day
The framework of a typical
Barnabas RE Day
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RE Days and curriculum guidelines
An outline of how each
Barnabas RE day theme connects with recommended curriculum RE guidelines for AT1 and AT2
An absolutely superb day. The children and staff had a wonderful day and are requesting a repeat performance!
St Peter's CE Primary School, Lancs
Assemblies for Autumn Festivals
Martin Cox
27 ready-to-use ideas for festivals and feast days
Skills and processes that are central to RE will be strengthened by the work done during the Barnabas RE Day, in particular:
Below is an outline of how each of the themes for the Barnabas RE days connects with recommended curriculum RE guidelines for AT1 and AT2.
We look at the Jewish and Christian story of creation in Genesis and think about what this account says about why God made the world. We think about the fun we have in making things and how we are made in the image of God. We wonder at the variety of all created things. We explore the idea of saying ‘thank you’ for the wonderful world we have been given and we look at ways of caring for it.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus is on God as Father and Creator.
At Key Stage 2 a key focus is on how we are made in the image of God and ways of caring for our world.
The Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)
On this Barnabas RE Day we enjoy the way God has made each of us different, with our own unique strengths. We explore the need to value the strengths of other people too. We enjoy Jesus’ stories about the way God values each individual person and loves him or her just as they are. We explore biblical teaching about the way we can live together with all our differences.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus is on the worth of people as individuals and within community.
At Key Stage 2 key teaching ideas are working together as a team, people having different aptitudes, strengths and weaknesses, sharing and interdependence. A key focus is the Christian community finding its identity in the body of Christ.
The Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)
We explore the ways people shut themselves off from each other and the way Jesus invites us instead to reach out to everyone around us, regardless of prejudices. We look at his example and his stories, which help us understand what compassion means. We think about the feeling of compassion and its power to help us act and change our behaviour. We explore how we might show compassion in our own behaviour in school and at home.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus is on Jesus changing people’s lives.
At Key Stage 2 ideas include being powerless and vulnerable, sharing other people’s experience in order to help them, the idea that people matter, and self-sacrifice for others. Key focuses include stories illustrating how Jesus helped people.
The Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)
Through collective worship and the workshops, the Barnabas team explores in what ways the Bible is regarded as the Christians’ sacred book. We will look at the number of books that it contains, give an overview of the variety of writers, investigate the different ways its readers experience it as special and see how some of the books came to be written. We will also consider how this book is seen as conveying truth for Christians. Finally, we look at how the Bible has influenced people, working with stories from the Bible itself, from both the Old and the New Testament and, by extension, with Christians today.
At Key Stage 1 the focus is on stories from the Bible and the changes they made to peoples’ lives
At Key Stage 2 ideas include what sort of book the Bible is; in what ways it is true and what sort of stories there are. Using stories from the Bible, children will be encouraged to explore how this book has influenced others.
The Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)
Through collective worship and workshops, the Barnabas team will look into what the Bible has to say about unfairness and justice issues. We will work with stories from the Old and New Testaments. Using drama and various styles of storytelling, we will explore what Christians believe God has to say about those issues and similar ones today and what sort of response God expects from believers. We will also draw on modern day stories from World Vision as an example of a Christian organisation that is involved in issues of social and global justice. Please note that this theme is for Key Stage 2 learners.
At Key Stage 2, a key focus is on the justice and compassion of God
This Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)
A key attitude in RE to build on here is ‘respect for all’ – i.e. being sensitive to the feelings and ideas of others.
With links to:
Promoting moral development through RE, namely:
Promoting social development throughout RE, namely:
Promoting citizenship through RE, namely:
And more generally, linking this to Bible stories:
Also there are links to PSHE 1a-b; 2c; 2e, namely:
A Barnabas RE Day on the themes of Advent and Christmas will focus on those Bible stories that help Christians prepare for this season. Using a mixture of storytelling, performance and drama games, the children will explore stories from the Old Testament that talk of the coming of a special king, the longing of the people of God for a rescuer, and the strange prophecies that hint that this rescuer would come as a surprise and at a surprising time and place. Stories from the New Testament will explore events from the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel, where the focus will be on the build-up to the birth in the stable through the experiences of Elizabeth and Mary. Overall the session will aim to look into what people at the time thought was going to happen and will provoke questions as to why this otherwise insignificant event in history is now celebrated all around the world.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus is on the promise of a special rescuer and the main events of the Christmas story.
At Key Stage 2 key ideas include the impact of these extraordinary events on ordinary people—what they thought was going to happen as well as their reactions to what actually did happen. The story of Advent and Christmas will be explored from different viewpoints and through the perspectives of different characters, giving the children the opportunity to reflect on the meaning of these events for people today as well as for themselves.
This Barnabas RE Day will give learners the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT 1)
Learning from religion (AT 2)
A Barnabas RE Day on the themes of Lent and Easter will focus on the Bible stories that help Christians prepare for and celebrate this key festival. Using a mixture of storytelling, performance and drama games, the children will explore stories from Holy Week as they relate to how and why the life of Jesus came to an end in the events of Good Friday and then the extraordinary claims of Easter Sunday. The sessions will focus on Jesus being welcomed on Palm Sunday, the telling of various parables that tried to prepare his followers for what was about to happen, through to the celebration of the final meal with his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. Children will be invited to reflect on the nature of the rescue that Christians believe is being achieved by what happens to Jesus, as well as to think about the nature of true heroism.
One or more of the events of Easter Sunday will also be covered in the workshop through the feelings and reactions of different characters in the resurrection stories. Once again, these will be presented in such a way as to prompt questions about what the people at the time felt was happening, as well as why these stories continue to move and inspire Christian believers today.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus is on the sequence of events that led up to the death of Jesus on the cross and the story of Easter Sunday.
At Key Stage 2 key ideas include the impact of these extraordinary events on ordinary people – what people at the time thought was happening, as well as the way in which the events of Holy Week have been remembered and help Christians to understand why Jesus had to die. Overall, the questions to explore will be ‘What sort of hero is Jesus?’ and ‘What sort of rescue is the cross?’ The story of Holy Week and Easter Day will be explored from different viewpoints and through the eyes of different characters, giving children the opportunity to reflect on what it meant for people at the time and what it means for Christians today.
This Barnabas RE Day will give pupils the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT 2)
A Barnabas RE Day on the theme of Harvest will focus on a selection of Bible stories that help Christians prepare for and celebrate this annual festival of thanksgiving. Using a mixture of storytelling, performance and drama games, the children will be invited to experience stories from the Old and New Testaments that relate to this theme. These include the story of Ruth and her loyalty and devotion at harvest time, the origins of Harvest Festival as expressed in the laws given to Moses, the importance of thankfulness for and awareness of God’s goodness in the creation story and after the flood, the story of the ten lepers, the parable of the rich farmer and the parable of the sower. In addition, the session will look at the sort of fruit that lives can produce in qualities such as love, joy, peace, gentleness and self-control, as they are traditionally expressed in Christian teaching. The overall aim of the workshop will be to prompt questions on how different people respond to the good gifts of life and to see how Christians try to apply the teaching of Harvest in their own lives.
At Key Stage 1 a key focus will be the stories of Harvest as found in the Bible and their encouragement to thankfulness for the good gifts of God’s world.
At Key Stage 2 key ideas will be the way individuals in the stories respond to their experience of the good things of this world. Issues to explore will be those of human greed and human need, gratitude and selfishness, attitudes towards those less fortunate than ourselves, the work of Christian charities, and the ‘harvest’ of how we respond to each other with good or bad attitudes. The overall aim of the session will be to reflect on these different responses as discovered in the stories and explore how Christians celebrate this festival, what it teaches them about life and what this might mean for others today.
This Barnabas RE Day will give pupils the opportunity to do some or all of the following:
Learning about religion (AT1)
Learning from religion (AT2)