On Tuesday 7th July we spent the day exploring spirituality through art. 

 

Spirituality is always a difficult thing to explain to children! It I important that the realise that spirituality is beyond religion, and is about the way we look at the world. At Exton, spirituality is about developing a 'relational consciousness' - relating to self, others, the world, and the other/ God. It is encouraging children to:

• delight in all things
• be absorbed in the present moment
• not be too attached to self
• be eager to explore boundaries of beyond
• search for meaning 
• discover purpose

 

We explore spirituality through the ideas of encounter (learning about life, providing for spiritual development through an exploration of identity and personal values), reflection (learning from life, understanding an inner meaning  of self and identity through critical reasoning and big questions), and transformation (learning to love life and responding as a means of expressing an idea of self, developing a personal set of beliefs). 

 

Throughout the day, each class explored spirituality through the works of artists - one artist for each class. Aqua class looked at the work of Yayoi Kusama; Teal Class looked at the work of Banksy; and Cobalt class looked at the work of Antony Gormley. Through each of these artists the children were guided to create their own pieces of artwork and reflect on what they noticed in the work of each artist, how it made them feel, what this art meant to them and how the art might change them. This led to bigger questions, with Aqua class exploring 'what makes me shine?' Teal class exploring 'what is worth standing up for?' and Cobalt class exploring 'what will you leave behind?'

 

It was a great day, and good to know that spirituality is also being explored in other trust schools in a similar way. I wonder what different conclusions each school came to about what spirituality means to them?