Experience Church

In the last week of last term, the whole school had the opportunity to explore Ascension, Pentecost, Ordinary Time and Trinity Sunday as part of Experience Church.

By looking at how three pieces of string or rope are stronger than a single one, the children learnt about how Christians believe that God is in three parts: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. While braiding their own bracelet, the children considered how they all have their own, unique strengths and that, by combining their qualities, they can be stronger together.

The children found out about the different seasons and colours of the church year: gold, red, purple and green. Green is used during ‘ordinary time’ and, for Christians, is a time for learning and growing. Although Christians are born in God’s likeness, they don’t all have to be the same as one another and the children reflected on the attributes they currently have and what sort of a person they would like to aspire to be in the future by decorating a bookmark, which was linked to the golden rule – treat others as you want to be treated.

During the sessions about Pentecost, the children learnt about how Jesus had said to his disciples that he had a gift for them, which was the ability to be able to speak in different languages so that they were able to spread the word of God to everyone around the world. Using play-doh, everyone made a mini sculpture of someone who helps them – friends, family, teachers or anyone special to them in their life. They also learnt about the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Planting a sunflower seed to take home with them helped them to understand how Christians believe that the Holy Spirit acts as a guide and helps them to grow in their own way.

In their final session, the children learnt about what Ascension means for Christians. They discussed how, according to the Bible, this happened forty days after Jesus’ resurrection when he rose up to Heaven and told his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to come to them. The children reflected on how we can sometimes see things (like bubbles, rainbows or candlelight) for a short time and then they appear to vanish but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t there at some point.

Thank you to Reverend Karen, Reverend Martin and all of the volunteers who helped to lead each group activity and explain things in an engaging and accessible way for the children.