Spiritual Development 

Spiritual Development  in Stratton School enables children to look within themselves, at their human relationships, at the wider world and, for many, at their vision of God with characteristics such as courage, hope, strength and love, so that they can face the challenges, sufferings and opportunities of human life in all its fullness.

Children will achieve some of the following outcomes as they progress through their primary years in Stratton CE School:

• Use religious and spiritual words e.g. God, spirit, belief
• Talk about “the human spirit” and their ideas about it.
   
• Say what they think “the human spirit” means
• Ask and answer questions with their own ideas about “the human spirit”.
   
• Make a link between the word “spiritual” and some images
• Describe why an image is spiritual for them.
   
• Show that they understand that people use the word “spiritual” in different ways
• Apply the idea of the spiritual for themselves simply.
   
• Use the right words to show that they understand what some people believe about the human spirit
• Respond thoughtfully to questions about the idea of the spiritual with some answers of their own and others. They are able to evaluate some of these ideas.

Spirituality is hard to describe and yet readily expressed in media such as art, poetry, music and story.

Children’s spiritual development is shown by their:

• Beliefs, religious or otherwise, which inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s feelings and values.
• Sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them, including the intangible.
• Use of imagination and creativity in their learning.
• Willingness to reflect on their experiences.