Pilgrims and visitors have been made welcome at Bath Abbey for hundreds of years. As one of the most visited places in the South West, we welcome over 420,000 people through our doors each year, but are fully aware that every visitor comes with their own expectations, beliefs and purpose.
Religious Education
Religious Education
Religious education in the UK is a prime subject in secular schools, as well as church schools. Christian beliefs, doctrines and rituals are central, but teaching about other religions is also part of the syllabus, as well as reference to not having a religion at all. And some schools are allowed to teach other religions as their prime object – Judaism, Islam, Hinduism being examples.
The teaching of Religious Education can benefit from a variety of different experiences outside the classroom. Each religion has its own traditions and schools will have their own needs and wants in terms of relating each religion to the other. Teachers should be aware that religion and particularly places of worship can be sensitive and taking a large group of noisy children into such an environment will take plenty of forethought and planning.
Some ideas and tips for planning such trips include...
Before you go:
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Make initial contact: find out if you can visit and when is the best time – both for you and the faith community concerned.
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Preliminary visit: Try to visit the faith community yourself to explore learning opportunities and to discuss your needs with the person who will be involved in the visit. Share with him/her what you hope pupils will get out of the visit. Clearly planned aims help to fit the visit into a scheme of work. A general ‘look around’ is the least likely activity to be successful. If possible try to arrange for the pupils to meet some believers other than the ordained leaders. Talk about how long you will stay. As a rule of thumb, under an hour is usually too short to make the most of the learning opportunity.
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Get parental permission: Schools should send a letter home with each pupil to make clear that this is an educational visit and that pupils will observe, not participate, in worship. Invite parents and other adults to help out on the visit.
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Prepare pupils: It is likely to be a completely new situation for them. Provide guidance about appropriate attitudes and any dress requirements such as removing shoes, covering heads. Encourage pupils to ask and respond to questions during the visit. Talk over, in advance, questions they may wish to ask during the visit. Identify ways in which the visit will be followed up back in the classroom.
Some key points to remember when visiting faith communities:
- Dress: in addition to any specific requirements, modest dress is the usual guideline. Shoes are removed before entering the prayer rooms of the Mosque, Mandir, Gurdwara and Buddhist Vihara. Check specific requirements when organising the visit – the following are the usual practice: Mosque: Female: Head, legs, arms covered. Male: Heads covered during prayer time. Gurdwara: Female: Head and legs covered. Male: Head covering. No cigarettes to be taken into the Gurdwara.
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Photographs: many places of worship will allow photographs to be taken at the appropriate time but prior permission should be sought.
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Behaviour: normal good behaviour standards are appropriate. In all places of worship it would be disrespectful to chew, talk loudly, run around or touch things without invitation. In places where sitting on a carpeted floor is usual, it is disrespectful to sit with legs open facing the focal point e.g. a deity, a holy book, Qibla wall etc.
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Hospitality: a number of places of worship will show hospitality to visitors by offering food or refreshment. It is important to prepare pupils for this: Hindu: prashad – this may take the form of crystal sugar, almonds, sweets or snack food. It is not sacred and should be accepted with thanks and eaten on the spot. Gurdwara: Kara prashad – a semi-solid cold food made from butter, semolina, sugar and milk, or a cup of tea boiled with milk. This is not a sacred food and should be accepted with thanks. Kara prashad can be kept for eating later.
- Donations: places of worship do not, as a rule, charge for visits, but a donation is recommended.
It is possible to arrange visits to local churches, chapels, mosques, temples and synagogues. Most of the cathedrals have education or visitor centres and resources for schools which can be viewed on their websites.
Main organisations:
The Religious Education Council
National Association of Teachers of Religious Education
Inclusion: NASEN
Thought of visiting?
Venues for this Curriculum
In Washford lies one of the undiscovered jewels of Somerset, providing an interesting day out for families and budding historians alike. The Cistercian abbey of Cleeve is a haven of peace and tranquillity, said to contain the finest cloister buildings in England.
Early 18th-century riverside house with small garden
This 18th-century house has a small walled garden, and is situated on the banks of the River Thames.
The extensive remains of an Augustinian abbey, including its abbots' quarters, refectory and cloister.
The substantially surviving chapter house has a frontage richly bedecked with 12th and 14th century carving and statuary, and a fine timber roof of around 1500.
Pictorial interpretation boards guide the visitor, and an introductory exhibition displays archaeological finds.
Home of a Community of Roman Catholic Benedictine monks
The monks are pleased to welcome school groups to their Abbey.
We have a long established Education Department (over 25 years!) with full-time education staff. This means that we can provide facilities and resources for all ages and ability levels covering a wide range of subject areas.
Discover the story of the original Salisbury and take your students of any age for a day out to Old Sarum, two miles north of where the city stands now.
The mighty Iron Age hill fort was where the first cathedral once stood and the Romans, Normans and Saxons have all left their mark.
Built by the royal masons in 1250, the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey was originally used in the 13th century by Benedictine monks for their daily meetings. It later became a meeting place of the King’s Great Council and the Commons, predecessors of today’s Parliament.
The Cistercian abbey of Hailes was founded in 1246 in Gloucestershire by the Earl of Cornwall in thanks for surviving a shipwreck.
The impressive remains of an abbey of Cistercian 'white monks', including towering fragments of its 13th century church, infirmary and 14th century abbot's lodging.
Bertram de Verdun, Lord of Alton, an important local nobleman at the time, founded a Cistercian monastery in 1176 for the salvation of the souls of his family.
Among the most complete and impressive monastic ruins in Norfolk of a Benedictine priory with a well-documented history. The nave, with its splendid 13th century west front and great bricked-up window, is now the parish church, displaying a screen with medieval saints over painted with Protestant texts.
Alton Castle is a Catholic Education Centre in rural Staffordshire, just up the road from Alton Towers.
The Clink Prison Museum is built upon the original site ofThe Clink Prison, which dating back to 1144 was one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons.
Originally 5 metres (16 feet) high and weighing some 16.75 tonnes, this is Cornwall's largest and heaviest prehistoric monolith.
This massive stone stands near the summit of the St Breock Downs, offering beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and across to the sea.
Blackburn Cathedral is one of England's newest Cathedrals, yet it is one of the country's oldest places of Christian worship.
Well-preserved 15th-century gatehouse, the sole survivor of a small Benedictine priory. A miniature 'pele-tower' containing two storeys of comfortable rooms, it later became a fortified vicarage, a defence against border raiders.
Wymondham Priory - it was raised to the status of an Abbey a mere ninety years before its suppression - was founded in 1107 as a community of Benedictine monks. The founder was William D'Aubigny, sometimes referred to as d'Albini, Chief Butler to King Henry I whose widow, Alice of Louvrain, was later to marry William's son.
The guest house and other remains of a Benedictine priory: much of the fine 12th to 14th century monastic church survives as the parish church.
The Benedictine priory of St Mary the Virgin and St Blaise was founded in about 1117 by Robert de la Haye, Lord of Halnaker. It was a cell of the abbey at Lessay in Normandy in France and, when founded, had a community of only three monks.
Remains of a grammar school for church choristers, founded in the mid-15th century by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, the builder of nearby Tattershall Castle (National Trust).
Tattershall College was built in 1460, four years after the death of its patron, Lord Cromwell, and was completed by William of Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester.
Wolvesey has been an important residence of the wealthy and powerful Bishops of Winchester since Anglo-Saxon times. Standing next to Winchester Cathedral, the extensive surviving ruins of the palace date largely from the 12th-century work of Bishop Henry of Blois.
Woodhenge is well worth a visit, especially if you are also heading to the nearby World Heritage Site of Stonehenge (located approximately 2 miles away).
Dating from 2300 BC, Woodhenge is thought to have marked a particular stage in the evolution of human religious belief and community organisation. This found a more permanent form in nearby Stonehenge.
A Bronze Age stone circle, the focus of many legends, set in dramatic moorland on Stapeley Hill. It once consisted of some 30 stones, 15 of which are still visible.
This great abbey, marking the rebirth of Christianity in southern England, was founded shortly after AD 597 by St Augustine.
This 19th-century cross of Saxon design marks what is traditionally thought to have been the site of St Augustine's landing on the shores of England in AD 597. Accompanied by 30 followers, Augustine is said to have held a mass here before moving on.
The Cathedral is the College Chapel for the College as well as the cathedral church for the Diocese of Oxford.
Substantial remains of an early Tudor friary church of Franciscan 'grey friars'.
The Grey Friars, or Franciscans, were followers of St Francis of Assisi and founded many religious houses across Europe.
They earned their name from the grey habits that were worn as a symbol of their vow of poverty.
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