Easter Activity Stations and Schools

St John’s Seven Kings will be providing seven Easter activity stations throughout the week commencing 4th April for children from Downshall and Newbury Park Primary Schools as part of their RE lessons.

The committee responsible for the Religious Education in all schools in each local authority, with the exception of schools with a religious character, is known as the SACRE (which is the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). The SACRE in Redbridge has been awarded a NATRE bursary to work with local churches of all denominations to strengthen links with schools.

As a result, the SACRE has been encouraging Redbridge churches to offer to set up either a Labyrinth or other reflective exercises on the theme of Easter and to invite local primary schools to visit the church with their year 5 and 6 classes before the Easter break. Training has been provided on the use of Labyrinth-style activities or reflective exercises in learning about and from the Christian Festival of Easter.

Rev. Geoff Eze, curate at St John's Seven Kings, has led the project at St John's to create a number of different activities for the pupils to take part in as they thoughtfully use the Easter activity stations. For the pupils, this will be an opportunity to understand more about the narrative of Easter, reflect on the meaning of Easter for Christians, and take time to reflect on what some of the Easter concepts mean to them.

Here is an example of one Easter activity station:

Reflection - Can you think of somebody who has put themselves out for you like Jesus did for Christians? Who was that person and what did they do that was special?

Activity - Write a Thank you card.

These Easter activity stations will also be available to people from St John's and the wider community on Wednesday 6th April between 9.00-10.00am and 7.00-8.00pm.

More information about the wonderful work which is done in our communities to help children learn about and from religion can be found through a website created for the National RE Celebration in March 2011, which aimed to raise the profile of Religious Education in the country.

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Adrian Snell - Gethsemane.