The RE Podcast
The RE Podcast
S14 E3: The One About Interfaith Week
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Today's episode is a delightful chat with Stacey Burman and Carrie Alderton about all things interfaith. And when I say all things, I mean ALL THE THINGS!
The history and purpose of Interfaith Week and why it is so important.
How we can get involved as a community a school and a teacher.
Where we can go for resources.
But also, how this is part of a bigger picture of Interfaith Education which should permeate schools, communities and RE classrooms? (Linking brilliantly to last weeks episode on Freedom Of Religion or Belief.)
It's a really practical episode with lots of tips and ideas and places to go for support
As part of the epsiode we hear from Alice who talks about all the amazing things she does for Interfaith week to give us some inspiration - get a notebook and make sure you are sitting down!
Please let Carrie know anything you have done for Interfaith week and how it went, or maybe you have some ideas and want some support on this for future IFWs?
Similarly, if you have any stories about interfaith education you want to share, or need support / resources to improve how you do it, please get in touch
Either contact me @therepodcast1 on X or @therepodcast on insta and bluesky or visit my website www.therepodcast.co.uk.
For more information;
https://www.interfaithweek.org/
https://www.ifw4schools.co.uk/
Find out more;
Twitter: @TheREPodcast1
Insta: @TheREPodcast
Webiste: www.therepodcast.co.uk
Welcome to the RE Podcast, the first dedicated RE podcast for students and teachers.
SPEAKER_06:My name is Louisa Jane Smith, and this is the R.E. Podcast. The podcast for those of you who think RE is boring, which it is, and I'll prove it to you. My guests today are Carrie Alderton and Stacy Berman. And Carrie is from the Faith and Belief Forum. Stacy, I you walked out. You're an RE advisor.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, I've got lots of different things that I do. I work with local authorities. I have the pleasure to work with Carrie at the Faith Belief Forum on some projects. And I'm also working with the RE Hub's website as a region lead. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03:General RE superstar.
unknown:Hard.
SPEAKER_06:I mean, that should be on your CD. And we'll find out a little bit more about the Faith and Belief Forum, but it's the charity that's now involved in running Interfaith Week. A significant week in the academic calendar that reminds us of the importance of interfaith education and dialogue. But how often do we actually utilise the resources available and make the most of this opportunity to celebrate diversity? Maybe we always meant to do something but never got around to it, or maybe we're not sure what to do. So Carrie and Stacy are here to tell us all about Interfaith Week and interfaith education, why it's so important and how we can get involved. So welcome, ladies. Lovely to be here. So Stacy, we know who you are. Carrie, do you just want to sort of explain who you are?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. And can I say first of all, I'm really delighted to be invited on because I'm a huge fan of the podcast. So I'm Carrie. I studied religious studies at university, so I've always been super passionate about RE and its role in celebrating diversity and preparing young people for life in a diverse world and making educational spaces inclusive for everyone. I might just start and telling you a little bit more about that if that's okay, and a little bit more about my story.
SPEAKER_06:Of course, I'd love that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I've worked in the charity sector for a number of years, and I've really seen this in action, you know, the role that creating interfaith spaces can play for young people. So I wanted to tell you a little story that sort of exemplifies this, I think. So before the pandemic, I was working at an educational centre and safe space for refugees and asylum seekers in Serbia. And whenever we created opportunities for the young people to bring their culture and their faith into that centre, it made it feel more like their space. And they were much more motivated to learn. It really transformed the kind of community that we were building. So one story that exemplifies this, I think, is when we celebrated the Slava, which is the Saints' Day in Orthodox Christianity, and it's a huge thing in Serbia. Everyone celebrates it, whether you're Christian or not, you know, it doesn't matter. Everyone has their own saint and then they celebrate your slava. And during the day we learn how to cook food from Afghanistan and Iran with the students like Balani, which is a super delicious kind of bread-based dish, and they spoke about the significance of it for them. And then we stood in a circle and we all pulled a bit of a Slavsky kolac, which is a bit like hala, it's kind of a plaided Serbian bread that people traditionally eat at a slava. So very carb-based, which you know, a lot of good interfaith work can be. You've told me already. But it really built this incredibly beautiful space, and it really contributed to this kind of intercultural community that we were creating there. And then from there and from the safety of the space that we built, I really felt that the students were much more motivated to learn and they could feel themselves represented in that space. So that's really informed my passion for the role of celebrating faith in schools and celebrating culture in schools and what it can do for the students and how it can change the mood and it can change the vibe of the learning environment. So now I have the great honour of being the head of programmes and development at the Faith and Belief Forum. And we're a national interfaith charity working in schools, universities, and communities, and I'm also a really proud board member of the Religious Education Council. So that's a little bit about me.
SPEAKER_06:Oh Carrie, that's lovely. Thank you. I love that story, and just it really typifies the best of what interfaith experiences are. You know, that that wasn't about interfaith dialogue, it wasn't overtly choreographed in order to have an end, it was just people sharing their authentic self, which is beautiful. Tell us a little bit. Oh, Stacey's got her hand up.
SPEAKER_04:She's so I just wanted it because that story just really resonated with me about something that happened with one of the sacros that I support. So it was during Interfaith Week, and I was quite inspired by the Connecting Objects Connect project that Faith Belief Forum has. So we actually asked our members to bring an item that was special to them, and at the start of the meeting we just started to share. So we would show in the object, we would explain why it was important to us, and then we'd move on. Now, what was really interesting was that there were a couple of members that didn't share at the beginning, and later on during the meeting, the whole atmosphere had changed because of what people were sharing, and as we went on, people were going more and more deeper and sharing more and more of themselves, and it actually then encouraged others to do the same. And I think everybody in that meeting had tingles because they'd been working with each other before, they'd been talking about RE, they'd been talking about all sorts of stuff, but this was the first time that we had connected on a really deep human level, and it was magical and it was powerful, very similar to what I felt you were explaining, and actually the work now that I think we would be able to do as a sacra is so much more meaningful because we have felt that. So I just wanted to share that at this point just because it really resonated.
SPEAKER_06:I mean And actually what that does in a really lovely way is it shows one why it's important and what the impact is, but also just a bit of caution that it can be quite vulnerable to ask people to share things that are important to them from their culture, and actually that maybe hints at the reason why we need to do Interfaith Week to create safe spaces for people to express their authentic self when actually that's not necessarily always there.
SPEAKER_04:But the difference was that we said any item that was special to you, and we did not imply that it had to be anything cultural, religious, anything that showed any beliefs. The item I brought in was something not religious or anything at all. It was something quite I feel now quite frivolous, but actually I thought it was important to leave it open because one of the things about I mean we keep calling it a safe space, but actually one of the words that I prefer to use is a brave space because actually it takes bravery to open up, and some people feel more comfortable doing it sooner, some people feel more comfortable doing it once others have. So it takes bravery to have really effective dialogue with people, and therefore I think we have to give the scope for people to join in how and when they want. So I don't think we can force everybody to join in, but if we do want to have that brave space, we need to leave it open enough that people could join in at different levels that they feel comfortable with.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. That's why it's so important to start with the personal and start with something that anybody can access and can understand. Anyone can find an object that's important to them and they can relate on that level. But I think the other thing that's quite important about the stories we're mentioning is that I think, especially in the UK, we like to pretend that there isn't a dominant culture, and we like to pretend that faith isn't important to us. And I think that interfaith work can upend that power dynamic. That's why it was incredibly important to do in Serbia so that the refugees and asylum seekers we were working with could see themselves in that space in a culture that often denied their existence. And that's why it's so vital for UK schools where we like to pretend that we're totally secular, but actually sometimes we don't create space for students from minority faith backgrounds in the school.
SPEAKER_04:And I think that's what was so interesting that was reflected in that meeting because it started with something that wasn't cultural. I mean, I brought in something that was important to me because it reflected Star Wars, because me and my husband love Star Wars, and I showed them something that had no religious or deep significance for anybody else, other than they might have heard of Star Wars and even liked the film. But as we progressed, the sharing got deeper and deeper, and it ended on that deep level.
SPEAKER_06:Star Wars is a deeply religious film. Yeah, and I love the fact you've actually got stars on your top. Oh gosh, I do. Like very much on Brad. Let's just take it back a step. So let's think about how, when, why Interfaith Week started. So let's do a bit of a history.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Okay. So, like most great things, Interfaith Week started in Scotland. Um, so it was established by Interfaith Scotland in 2004, and it was started as an opportunity really for groups all over Scotland, you know, even including the Highlands and Islands, to meet and build better community relations when a lot of that work previously, especially in more remote areas, hadn't been done. So it was an opportunity to provide examples for what good interfaith work and inter-community work could look like. And I worked in interfaith relations in Scotland for a number of years, and I've been to some amazing Interfaith Week events there, and it's still ongoing, it's still super strong. And I know that even the Edinburgh Interfaith Association, they celebrated Interfaith Week this year with a huge peace event. I think there were like over 400 people there, and they held it at the historic St. Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, with political representatives, council members, local faith leaders. I think there were local school children there as well. So it's just an opportunity often for communities and also sometimes community leaders, but also school children to get involved with local intercultural work, local interfaith work, and to celebrate, sometimes on some of the biggest platforms that that city has, the diversity of their local area. So the Scottish Interfaith Week inspired the Interfaith Network at that time to create a version of Interfaith Week for England and Wales. And that's been running since 2009. So from the very beginning, those events included things like interfaith sports, there were discussions and dialogues, there were walks and pilgrimages, festivals and celebrations, exhibitions, concerts, and classroom activities. So from the very beginning, Interfaith Week in schools has been a super important part of the initiative.
SPEAKER_06:So you've mentioned the Interfaith Network was who kind of started it in the UK. They no longer run it. So as of I think this year is the first time they haven't run it and it's moved over to the Faith and Belief Forum. Talk to us about that changeover and then maybe what your vision for Interfaith Week is moving forward.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I'll talk a bit more about it. I just want to clarify it's not completely run by the Faith and Belief Forum, but I'll talk a little bit about the story of how we got to where we are now, and hopefully that'll make it a bit clearer. So, yeah, like I was saying, the Interfaith Network, we're running Interfaith Week in England and Wales from 2009 to 2023 until sadly the Interfaith Network last year had to close, as you say. So, since then, a group of organisations we've been meeting to keep the week active and really think about how we can continue running it and continue making it a brilliant national event every single year. Particularly, we've been thinking about how we can gather together all of our resources to make sure that communities can celebrate this year. We're hoping at the Faith and Belief Forum to run a bigger consultation with community groups and interfaith groups to shape what the Interfaith Week will look like going forwards post-Interfaith Network. And we're planning on doing that actually in January and February, and then taking a paper of recommendations to the Faith Minister, Waj Khan, and MHCLG, who are very interested and passionate about interfaith work and committed to seeing this work continue and progress. So we will let your network know about where those events might be when we are doing that consultation process, and hopefully people can feed into what the future of the week as a whole will look like. So in those initial conversations, sorry if this is a bit complicated, just ask me any questions if it's not clear. In those initial conversations with the groups who were talking about what Interfaith Week going forwards would look like, NASACRA were also there. So we had a couple of conversations and realized that of course, with Faith and Belief Forum, we have a really strong educational remit, and NASACR, of course, working with SACRAs around the country. We had a really similar specialism but also strategic interest in the area, and that was to support schools to celebrate the diversity of their student population and the wider school community. So at FNBF, I'll just tell you a bit more about our work and the reason why this was a particular focus for us. So we run multiple projects for schools, including School Linking in London and the Westmids, where we bring together two different classes from two schools, normally with a different cultural or faith background, and they meet together multiple times throughout the year and they build really strong friendships, and are encountering faith and belief workshops where we have a trained pool of volunteer speakers who are trained as storytellers to tell their lived experience in a really engaging way for different key stages in a way that will really make sense to people and just centres their personal experience rather than generalizing about the group that they're from. It's all centered in the personal. So we've also been developing, in collaboration with Stacy, new approaches to interfaith education, especially in the last couple of years, including object-oriented learning and innovative ways to bring parental and community voices into the classroom. So as an organization, we're really passionate about how schools can embrace, understand, and partner with the diversity in their local communities and diverse them.
SPEAKER_04:I remember coming in to talk about that, and I remember when we were making coffee, and I just remember telling you, you have to pick up the Interfaith Week carry. You can't not. And then Phil Camping came in the CNO and I had the same barrage I gave to him. So I was really pleased actually that Faith Belief Forum did pick it up because I think there was a huge panic. Who was going to carry this forward? Was it going to just dry out? Was it just going to dissipate? And I don't think anybody wanted that too, but there was a general sense of what's going to happen, who's going to take the lead. If I'm really honest, I'm so delighted that FBF were at the forefront of working with people to still bring this to schools with NASACA.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you, Stacey. And well, maybe that's kind of the kick-up the bum that we needed to pull it together in such a short space of time. But yeah, we were just conscious that there was so much amazing work happening around the country for Interfaith Week. And the Interfaith Network brought together some great resources as well. But we know that a lot of the initiatives that were coming forwards for Interfaith Week were from schools. And sometimes that's the only time of the year that a school will think about interfaith education. So we just wanted to make sure that that was not lost and we were creating something really specific and really targeted for schools to be able to celebrate Interfaith Week.
SPEAKER_06:And it feels as though that you want this to be a sort of collaborative journey with the people that are getting involved, and we'll talk a little bit more about that in terms of your vision for making that collaborative. And you've already talked about some of those forums that are coming up. I'll put links to the Faith and Belief Forum and to Interfaith Week in the show notes so people can very easily find those. But I think what probably a lot of the listeners are going to be thinking about now is how they can get involved. But I don't want to limit this to RE teachers. So we want to think about how we can get involved as a community, as a whole school community, and as RE teachers.
SPEAKER_04:Fantastic. So because my work is quite varied, so I work with SACRAs, I sometimes work with local authorities, I sometimes work with teachers, I sometimes work with head teachers, sometimes I'm in the classroom itself because I think that's really important. To me, I think anybody that is delivering quality RE should be including quality interfaith dialogue. But more than that, any people who are involved in developing those curriculums or syllabi or leading a subject or involved in the planning and creating of resources, materials, anything even beyond a school, I think if they are promoting good RE and interfaith dialogue, then they should be involved in quality interface dialogue. So actually, whilst I appreciate that this year the focus has been on schools, I am quite passionate actually that SACRO members are involved and experiencing what it is that they are trying to encourage through the syllabus that they write and develop. In the same way that we want teachers to be brave enough to engage their pupils with interfaith dialogue in the classroom, they also need to be experiencing it. So one of the things that I tried to do was to use some of the ideas and practices and materials that the Faith Belief Forum already have with SACRAs and with teachers. And I was explaining that the reason I want you to experience this is because you need to understand how it feels for the pupils. I mean I'm one of those don't ever tell somebody to do something you would never ever do yourself. So, and that's why I thought it was quite important that they experienced it. But it was actually really easy to do. It was so simple because I mean I mentioned it before, but there's a really good project that the Faith Belief Forum have developed, which is trying to develop interfaith dialogue with parents and pupils and teachers in schools, and it's of such a simple idea that the conversation is focused around an object, and it in to some extent it doesn't even matter what the object is, but that it's something that is open to interpretation and that people can connect with, and it's all about what you can see in this object, what's important to you that you can see reflected in the object, and it just engages people in a conversation they wouldn't normally have. And so I took that idea and used it with teachers and used it with sacros, and it just worked so well, and there's so much research to show that this material approach is effective, and that the examples that I used it with just demonstrated the same. And obviously, in in our re we're used to using religious artifacts, but actually I think it was important to demonstrate that the same can be done with anything, and that means that this dialogue is open to everyone.
SPEAKER_06:Thank you, Stace. That's great.
SPEAKER_03:Carrie. Maybe just another thought on how the community could get involved, because I think that's yeah, that's a really brilliant example, and uh we've got a lot of already from the two different pilots that we've run of that project, we've got some great evidence to show that it's really working in those schools, and pretty much all of the schools are wanting to continue running it every single year, which is fabulous. But just some more ideas about how your community might get involved, but also maybe how parents like the wider school community might get involved, so local community groups could talk to their local school and invite them in for a tour of their place of worship, you know, maybe tell the young people about your personal experience or the history of your community, show them some places around your place of worship, show them some objects or some things that you use and talk through how that is done. Parents similarly could come in to the school and tell their story. Maybe they might also want to bring an object to make it a bit more inclusive or talk about their faith community and their journey. So I think really the main way that communities can get involved is by opening their doors, but also practicing, as Stacey is saying, some of that vulnerability and sharing some of their own personal experience.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Stacey. I just wanted to kind of add to that. So why, as part of the support. Support that RE Hub's website gives, the whole point about it is to help schools identify faith speakers that can either go into the school or give them a tour of a local place of interest or worship. And I recently did a session with a group of faith speakers, and it was such a powerful session because what we were talking about was how often schools might go to visit, I mean, in this example, it was a Mandir or a Hindu temple. But we were actually talking about the importance of pupils recognising the meaning behind the worship and the place for the believers. The question I asked was, what is it that pupils can gain by visiting you rather than just from a textbook and looking at a picture? And we looked at that and we unpicked it, and actually it's about bringing the personal and it's about explaining and sharing with those pupils what it means to them. Because naming the items in Amanda is great, but actually it doesn't give any depth or meaning or understanding or doesn't invoke any compassion or commonality or connecting making. I'm really conscious that I mean I know Ofsted may not be the be-all and the end all, but they put in their report that the importance of this as a subject is to help pupils engage with a multicultural and multi-secular society. And that word engage I think is so important. It's not just knowing about, it's not just knowing facts and information about, it's engaging. And in order for that engagement to happen, we need to ingest what we're being told or shown, and then to reflect and connect with it. That's the only way we're going to get engagement at a deeper level. And I think that's what the difference between interfaith dialogue is and any other kind of monologue. So when we were talking to these speakers and we were talking about what we do and how we go into schools, and I'm pretty sure that this is what you talk about on your training session, Carrie, with your volunteers, is talking about it's your story. Yeah. And engaging pupils at a deeper level, more than just the substantive knowledge and information and tick boxes, but to engage on a deeper level, on more levels, more senses and experiences. It's it's got to be emotional because we only remember things if we have a connection to it. So they have to bring their personal story to it in order for it to make sense to these pupils. So I think you're right about opening the doors, but I think it's about also opening up yourself. Yeah. I think that's actually quite necessary in order for that really effective interfaith dialogue to happen.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. And that's kind of the core methodology of the F and BF work, really, and especially in schools, is storytelling of speakers, but also helping students to tell their own story and feel empowered to tell their own story. And that's partly why we chose the theme for this year for Interfaith Week, which was telling my story, building our future. And then we worked with a number of RE partners to select different events, assemblies, resources, lesson plans that related to that story.
SPEAKER_06:It's so beautiful to hear you both speak so passionately about this. I think what I'm hearing, first of all, is that interfaith is not a week and it's not an activity that actually it should underpin a really good RE curriculum and it needs to happen at that curriculum level. But also, you know, in this kind of worldviews approach that we have, that thread that we have of personal knowledge actually isn't just about children having an opinion on something, it's about a personal experience with the lived experience of somebody else. Yes. And actually, that's maybe something in the rhetoric around the worldviews approach that maybe hasn't been necessarily made as explicit as you guys have expressed.
SPEAKER_04:I think that's a really relevant observation, actually. I think a lot of people that I talk to, you know, the question about well, what do we mean by personal knowledge and what part does it have to play in RE, I think is still quite misunderstood. And I know that there's a research project being done by Huddersfield University about it. But one of the things that when I'm talking with my teachers and who I work with is I often talk about how we learn and understand. So I gave the example if you've got a plate of food in front of you that's new, you've never tasted something before, what you will do is you will look at it and your brain will try and think, Well, what have I seen that looks like this? What can I try and relate it to? And then you might touch it and then you might smell it, and again, you're trying to engage as many parts of your body and your brain to make connections so that you can understand what it is that's been placed in front of you. And then when you taste it, again, that's a whole nother level. And ultimately, what you are doing is linking all of these to things you already know, to experiences you already have, and actually, that's what learning is and should be. And we know this, often I talked about this before, as rays of research has is we're never going to remember anything unless we have something we can connect it to in our own experiences. So that personal knowledge is really important part of RE and interfaith dialogue full stop, because if we want pupils to engage, then they have to make those connections. And in order to make those connections, we have to lay things out for them and be open about them so that they can then join in and make more connections themselves.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely. We've talked quite a lot about sort of how you can get involved sort of within the community. I I just want to just check that we've kind of spoken about everything we need to talk about in terms of getting involved with Interfaith Week, sort of on a community, school community RE teacher level.
SPEAKER_03:I think we've spoken a bit more about the community side, but for RE teachers, there's lots of different approaches that can be used. And that's something as well that we have been bringing together resources and approaches for. If it is that people just want to dive straight in, already have a theme chosen, you know, pick up and run with a lesson plan or an assembly that doesn't take them any time to prep, really. You know, if it is that time is tight and capacity is tight and resources are tight, then that is the easiest way to do it. But there are also some amazing projects and approaches and events that are being run around the country where people have invested that time into really working with their local community and thinking about the needs of their student population as well and creating something super tailored. Yeah, and we've got a couple of examples of those, I think, that we're going to share. But another option is that you could invite in an external provider, another organisation, like at the Faith and Belief Forum, we can run lots of workshops in schools and we do throughout the year. So, for example, for Interfaith Week, we delivered workshops throughout one day to over 130 year five students. It was a long day, but it was really fabulous, and it was part of their cultural celebration day in the school. So, through that, again, we explored storytelling and the power of storytelling, but also the universal principle of thankfulness, and explored that through a story, and then got the children to reflect on what that meant for them, what the themes in the story were bringing up for them. And it was wonderful because within this day of celebrating the cultures in the school, all of the kids were wearing their own cultural clothing whilst exploring all of these universal principles and themes. So, yeah, that's something that an organisation like ours, and there are a few others as well, can come and deliver for you in your school if it is that you're wanting to have a special celebration day and bring in some new faces to really facilitate the session.
SPEAKER_04:I think there's actually quite a lot of schools that do some sort of cultural day. There's a lot of schools that already, certainly in primary, will have a day where you know people can dress up and parents are even invited in. Because I think that's also really an important element there that Interfaith Week can encourage, but perhaps it should be carried on throughout the whole year. And actually, it doesn't take a lot then for those schools to just go that little bit further to create that interfaith dialogue opportunity because they've already put in the legwork of getting the parents in, getting the foods in. It's just that little bit more to generate that conversation, that dialogue. So it's actually quite easy, I think, for a lot of schools to do that are perhaps thinking, oh no, I could never do it. Actually, you kind of are already there, you're already on the journey. It's just that tiny little bit more to really get that deep interface dialogue going.
SPEAKER_06:And if you are going to do a cultural day and you get children to dress up, just do make very clear that it's a celebration of their own culture, not an appropriation of somebody else's. And so it's just something that's worth mentioning if you put out a letter to parents to explain it, the difference between those two things. So we've mentioned the Interface Week website, and obviously anybody can just click onto that link and see a plethora of resources and services that are available, but just sort of talk us through some of the headlines of things that we can use. You've mentioned sort of assemblies and all sorts of things. So just run us through what's available.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, of course. So I should say that we worked with a whole host of RE partners to bring together these resources who are all experts in the field. So maybe I'll just quickly run through them. I might need to take a deep breath before I do because there are many. So Cullum St. Gabriel's, the feast, facing history in ourselves, UK, Re Hubs, REC, RE Today, and Natre. And as I said previously, NASACRO is sort of the partners that we came up with the concept with. So we've using the theme, which is all about storytelling, so sharing my story, building our future, we have themed the different resources that we've curated and presented on the website. So we start there with the eye, investigating our own identity, how that can be done sensitively and well in a classroom setting, and then encourage the students to tell their story through different resources. Within there, there are one-off resources, there are lesson plans, there's even assembly that Facing History and ourselves have put together for us as well, which is all about Interfaith Week and the importance of Interfaith Week historically and what it could mean for the school. And then we move on to resources that are more about understanding others. So we've got some great videos in there on different young people talking about their faith experience in different places of worship and talking about it from their perspective. We've also got some resources in there from different organisations, but some from the Faith and Belief Forum that I think are really important for marking into Faith Week, which are about how you can effectively and sensitively ask and answer questions, how you can open up spaces for dialogue, and some of the principles that you might want to investigate with your class before talking about these really difficult topics. So that's a really important part of that process, especially when we're kind of exploring the you. So we start with the I, our own identity, then we talk about how you can learn and become more curious and investigate the you. So a really important part of that, as Stacey was saying previously, is creating that brave space and creating that safe space in the classroom. And then finally, it's looking at the other part of the theme, which is building our future. So, what does it mean when we look outside of our school? And there we have a number of ideas, events, and kind of concepts that schools might want to consider, some case studies of what have worked well in the past of how different schools, how different classes have engaged with their local communities, gone out and learnt stories, learnt histories, and then brought some of that learning back into the classroom and really investigated it and integrated it into their curriculum. So there are some brilliant examples there, like for example, the Feast have a beautiful map that they've made of a community in Birmingham, which is where they've created a map of where all of the places of worship are situated, and it's a route that schools can follow around their local area. So it's kind of an interfaith map. So there are some brilliant ideas, and also you can go onto the gallery page of the website and look at some of the different things that have been happening across the country. And we would love it if your listeners could send through to us some more pictures or examples for us to upload there so we can bring together a whole celebration of the work being done across the country. And for RE teachers, we've got a number of recordings of different events that we had throughout the week that we delivered in partnership with different organisations like the REC and NACTRA. So you can go on there for some really good CPD as well.
SPEAKER_06:Gosh. And do you know what? What I'm going to say to everybody listening is put something in your diary for the summer term, particularly if you're a secondary school teacher and that term is just a little less relentless, to start planning it. Because I think what happens is you come back in September, you're back on the treadmill, it happens in November. Yeah, first week of November, is it? Usually the second week. Second week of November. What happens is that then you get caught up in the cycle of the school and actually it goes by again. So put something in your calendar right now and put the website in your calendar to have a look and start planning it. And what I want to share with you now is just what is possible. So the lovely Alice Thomas, who I know from the Collins St. Gabriel Leadership Group, has I mean, I can't even begin to say how incredible she is and what she's done for Interfaith Week. So we're just gonna listen to a voice note from her.
SPEAKER_00:Hi, so we're just gonna list all the things that we've done for Interfaith Week. So we started just before half term with Diwali and we asked our Key Stage 3 art students to create clay dears, which were given out to all staff for Diwali with candles. So all staff had them present on the table before we finished Proctober half term, and the candles were on. That was one thing. Our second thing was we did a year eight Hinduism workshop via the Ice Con Hinduism education service focusing on celebrating the story of Rama and Zita, and that was really good. So we did looking at the Sante Dharma worldview and how Sante Dharma celebrate Diwali. We've had the school canteen serving food from cultures around the world. So each day a different dish has been served representing a different worldview, different culture. Thirdly, we had our Key Sage 3 Bangra Dancing Workshop, which was led by our P department. So they taught them a routine and then they performed it for students. We have had six forms of students take part in the Young People's Workshop, which was held at Coventry University, and it's called Young People's Workshop. The key question was how can we work better together? It was led by the National United Religions Initiative, the UK, and they led on a conference with key speakers and key topics from hate crime to disinformation. They had guest speakers and they asked students to then come up with solutions, create projects on how they can address these key issues and work together from across the city. Later on, the event continued into the evening, and staff met with Lord Kahn, who's the faith minister, to discuss topics on faith, beliefs, and worldviews, and also other faith representatives were there as well. It was a big conference at the university which allowed staff to discuss topics of key issues relating to faith, beliefs, and worldviews. Today we have held a Somoza Char and Tea event where we asked key faith representatives from across the city. They were invited into school for the event. Students baked and cooked lunch for these key faith representatives, bringing together different faiths and cultures into dialogue. So there was a key focus on interfaith dialogue and discussing key issues. It was really nice. We decorated the room and all guest speakers and students sat around one table and allowed them to be able to enter into interfaith dialogue with these representatives from across the city. Also, today we have had students attend Commentary Cities Peace and Reconciliation Poetry Event, which was run by a local poet. Students were asked to create and perform their own poems, and they were centred on belief, faith, and peace. We've also had a six-form assembly today, which was led by a local church called CLMN Church, and they led on discussing with students faith and Christianity. As part of our Interfaith Week, we've also tied in World Kindness Day, which was today, and we did a postcard exchange for staff and students, showing kindness to both staff and students. We're also running a postcard exchange with two local schools, a local Sikh school and a local Muslim school, and we're exchanging postcards because we're a Church of England school. So we're exchanging postcards on our faith, our wealth views, our beliefs, and just generally, so each student received a postcard from one of the schools as another way of our interfaith work and interfaith dialogue. So all this is from Bluecoat Church of England School in Coventry.
SPEAKER_06:I know that's amazing! It's unbelievable. Yeah. And I I messaged her back and I said, I'm completely exhausted just listening to this. How did you organise it all? And she said she spent quite a few weeks planning the event, which enabled to pack quite a lot in. And that's why I say to you, if you've got some time in the summer term to kind of get things in place, then that's great. And I don't think that's the bar. I think that's the exception. But there might be one or two ideas in that maybe people can pick up on.
SPEAKER_03:And it's just so impressive, I think. And I think especially the kind of multi-sensory aspect of it, the wraparound aspect of it, you know, and it really relates to what we've been speaking about before, where interfaith isn't about learning about the facts of a religion. Interfaith is about experiencing and celebrating and getting curious about other people and their experiences. And you know, I can just imagine those kids trying Bangra dancing maybe for the first time, and you know, like that must have been so exciting, you know, it must have given them a completely different insight and experience of a culture.
SPEAKER_06:But also that just shows you how you should get other subject areas involved. Yeah. That actually, if you've got a catering department and you've got a dance department and you've got a music department, this isn't something that RE teachers have to do alone, it's a whole school thing. And so actually you pull on the expertise of those within your community.
SPEAKER_04:I think actually that plugs in, I think, with a couple of comments that I've had from schools, which is the school as a whole, to make something as big and successful as that, you know, you do need more than just the RE lead developing it. I mean, I know you're suggesting to have a look in the summer to start moving things forward, but actually one thing that I do think might work really well is just to ask for five minutes of a staff meeting for teachers to share something. You know, ask everybody to bring in one thing just to share because actually doing it in the staff room as a staff, I think that's quite a valid experience. And then if that happens, they might be able to recognise and feel like they can also contribute to a big school event for Interfaith Week, having experienced it themselves. There were two other things that I noticed in some of that, one of which was actually it was part of our e-learning already. So they were talking about Dabali and they were talking about the Rama and Sita story. So that that already happens in RE classrooms, and actually the difference with the interfaith dialogue and using that as an event or a kind of a launch pad for interfaith week is just about sharing that learning wider than the classroom. And so that's something every teacher can do or every school can do, is to have an opportunity to share the learning that's already going on with wider in the school or with parents or with other departments or you know in an assembly, because actually that is the springboard to interfaith dialogue, is just taking it outside the classroom. So a lot of our teachers are doing this already. As I said, it's just about that little push further to make it so much more impactful.
SPEAKER_06:That's really helpful advice. Thank you, Stacey. And I know that Carrie, as we've said before, that you want the future of Interfaith Week to be collaborative. So this is a bit of a shout out to anyone who's listening. Could you let Carrie know anything that you've done for Interfaith Week, how it went, maybe. You have some ideas and you want a bit of support on this for future Interfaith Weeks, just get in touch. You can either contact me, so I'm on XTre Podcast One, I'm on Instagram the Repodcast, you can contact me through my website www.therepodcast.co.uk. How can they get directly in touch with you, Carrie?
SPEAKER_03:Through the Interfaith Week for Schools website. So that's IFW for the number schools.co.uk. There's a form on there that you can fill out if you want to upload any pictures or send through some quotes. But please also do just get in touch with the Faith and Belief Forum. We're on all social media and you know you can contact us through our website as well. Me and our education and learning team would absolutely love to hear more about what you're doing and to connect more to your work.
SPEAKER_06:And so actually, Alice, if you've got any pictures from all those incredible things that you've done in Interfaith Week, please please post them on the picture board or send them to Carrie or to me and I can forward them on because I think I think there's probably going to be some really, really great pictures that you've captured there. Before we kind of move on to talking about sort of interfaith education, which I know we've sort of hinted at a little bit. Why is Interfaith Week so important? And again, we've sort of touched on a few of those ideas, but it'd be really nice just to kind of really think about that.
SPEAKER_03:I'm trying to think where to start, really. There's so many reasons why Interfaith Week is important, I think. I think it's important because, as I was saying right at the beginning, so often we just don't give ourselves the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our schools, of our communities, of our country. Because yeah, I think that we often find these subjects, especially around faith, sometimes, and I would say wrongly, not important to us and not important to UK society, but also challenging and controversial often. And I think, especially at the moment, this is why Interfaith Week and Interfaith Work is so vital, is so important, because we are struggling to speak well to each other, we're struggling to understand each other, we're struggling to understand other versions of truth or worldviews on our own. And sometimes we need to practice that and we need to learn those skills. And school is the place where that needs to start. And I think that that should be the message to other people within the school environment to get them all as involved as Alice was able to. You know, this is about student social and emotional learning. And if young people can't grow up in an environment where they can talk about their beliefs openly, then they're going to shut down those difficult conversations for the rest of their lives. And in such a divisive atmosphere that we're facing at the moment, I think building children's curiosity, building their ability to empathize with others and creating a week to celebrate that, it could only be a good thing.
SPEAKER_04:I completely agree, and I really want to pick up on that word celebrate because current legislation talks about tolerating, and actually Interfaith Week is making the difference and the distinction between tolerating and celebrating. And then the other thing that I just wanted to kind of draw back on was this comment about enabling pupils to engage in a multi-faith multi-cultural society. If we don't give them these skills, then that's never going to happen. And as Carrie said, we're just going to keep repeating the same mistakes if we don't teach them how to do it better. And I know it can be scary. I know that there might be quite a lot of teachers out there that are nervous about what they're going to say, they might say something wrong, we might offend. And actually, that's why that brave space is important because we're never going to learn how to say the right things the right way unless we make mistakes. And actually, we learn the best through mistakes, and we need to create an environment where we are willing to teach each other, and that's why I prefer that phrase brave space than safe space. And then the one other thing that I wanted to add. So I was listening to something very different a while ago, and I've never heard this phrase before. I've heard of helicopter parents and I've heard of other sort of parenting, but I've never heard of clifftop parenting. Have either of you heard of cliff top parenting?
SPEAKER_02:No, no.
SPEAKER_04:So it was actually to do with online safety of children, and it's kind of talking about this idea that you're never gonna get a mobile phone until you're 13, you're never gonna get it until you're 13, and you're holding on to this child really tightly until they get to the age of 13, and then you're at the cliff edge, and then you've got to let the child go. And if you haven't taught them to be responsible with a mobile phone and all that social media, then are you just gonna let them go and drop over the cliff? And I kind of feel that that principle really applies a little bit to this as well. We are supporting people to become the citizens of the future, and that's why I think your theme for this year was so powerful, because it wasn't just about sharing the stories, it was about building the future. If we want these pupils to be in a place where they can build that better future, we have to give them the skills to be able to do it. And if we don't engage in that interfaith dialogue now, even if we're nervous, even if we're not sure about it, if we just keep hiding our heads under the carpet, we are risking so much more in the long run.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. So what I'm hearing from you is that it's more than just creating a counter-narrative, I think, to the dominant one that's quite divisive. It's about creating a different future. It's about creating a different path that actually is a path to somewhere that we actually want to go to. And the other thing is, and I keep mentioning this because it just blew me away. Bridget Phillipson said the whole point of education, this was in her hundred days in office webinar, the whole point of education was to help children understand who they are, their place in the world, and how to be respectful to people that live differently to themselves. That was her whole point for maths, for English, for history, for geography, for music, for PE, whatever. And I was like, that's really interesting because that means that RE can spearhead that. And that was very encouraging that we have an education minister that seems to understand the potential of what good education can be. And that kind of ties in nicely to what you're saying. Something I just want to bring in now, and I think this is really important, which is that this is not just about schools doing this. Interfaith Week is not exclusive to schools, it's much bigger than that. But actually, I don't know if organizations are necessarily aware of that if it's on their radar. Particularly, Stacey was mentioning before we started recording that there is a badge in Beavers Cubs or Scouts where it's an interfaith badge. What could we offer those organizations to support them with that? Thank you, Louisa.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, so my children are have been initiated as a cub and as a beaver and a scout. So there is a badge for both beavers and cubs and scouts called Interfaith. And I just think that I think there is a recognition among some organizations that this interfaith is important because there is this badge for it. Having said that, I think some of those leaders of those cubs, beavers, scouts, etc., are not always confident to provide the opportunities for those children to engage, to develop those skills for that badge in ways that are really effective or supportive. So one of the things that I did is I actually ran a session using, I hope this is okay, Carrie. I nabbed the idea of the special object, which is at the center of the special objects connect project that you do. We basically got all of the sixes, because they're in groups of six already, which is quite handy, to have each have a look at a different object. And we just literally said, What do you think it is? What ideas does it come up with? And we had a range of them. And what was really exciting to see is that it took such little planning because the cubs and the scouts were already there, they already have their sixes, but it wasn't just their engagement and wanting to speak to each other about whatever. The children were quite excited to share, oh, this is you know, but the leaders were as well. The leaders were coming up to me afterwards, and I kept trying to well go and ask the children, go and ask the cubs, go and ask the selves, don't ask me. They wanted to really know. And in a way, afterwards, some of those leaders have said to me afterwards, actually, that was a really important for me to go and talk to the Cubs and the Scouts themselves about it. You know, I was drawn to talk to you because you were running the session, but you're right, it was much better to go and ask them, and I think that was a lovely example of how some of those leaders to begin with were really nervous about the idea. They were quite maybe tentative, or I'm not sure, I'm not sure, we don't want to offend people, but then actually could see and actually engage themselves with that interfaith dialogue and really enjoyed it and could see the benefit. And that is something that I would really like to see happening across all Cubs and Scouts and Beavers because it's something that it's relevant to all of them. This badge is relevant to all of them and can be done in such a powerful way rather than just going to a visit to one place of worship or inviting one person from a particular worldview or religion in, is to get the pupils to talk to each other. And I think that to me is the difference between interfaith dialogue and faith monologue.
SPEAKER_06:Brilliant. Oh, what a nice sound bite there. Well done. But also, I think just if anyone is listening and they are involved with any kind of Cub Scout Beaver group, they know somebody that is, they know that there's one in their local area. Please, please, please share this episode with them because interfaith is bigger than RE classes.
SPEAKER_03:It would also be nice to see more youth groups and you know, especially faith-based youth groups getting involved in interfaith work. Yes. And I think that similarly there's a fear there. But you know, as we've been speaking about, these are all muscles that we need to work out, you know, like how to be an active listener, how to build empathy, like how to present what you're saying in a way that doesn't generalize about your own group or someone else's group. All of this, these are muscles that we need to really work on. And that can happen in any place where you work with young people. And I think there's a couple of dangers that could happen, is that it can become tokenistic. Interfaith work can become quite tokenistic. So just a one-off visit to a place of worship without any follow-up and any kind of personal investigation, doesn't quite cut it. But I think there's also a risk, you know, that we could get really passionate instantly about interfaith work and dive straight into the most controversial of issues. That I would also warn against, even though that's where we want to get to. And there's lots of organisations out there, including the Faith and Belief Forum, who've got resources and projects and can support you in thinking how you get your young people to the place where they are ready to really investigate their own identity and start to grapple with someone else's.
SPEAKER_06:That's Stacy's clifftop parenting analogy, right there, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04:But I think it's also really, and I love the idea, it's a muscle and it's something we need to develop. And actually, you do need to start with just the skill of listening, ingesting, because there's no point sharing if no one's listening. And that I think resonates a little bit with what you were saying about it can be tokenistic. You know, it's all very well having somebody in or looking at this or talking about that, but unless those pupils are listening and are open to listening, it's not going to generate any engagement at a deeper level. And I think you're absolutely right. It needs to start small, and that's why I like the starting with the material object because it's small, it's not immediately judgmental, and it's not immediately directly linked to you. You're focusing the learning and the talk on an object, on something that's inanimate, which makes it safer, but can still be powerful and generate that talking and the listening. As you said, before you even touch some of these controversial issues, I mean, I agree with you. I think a lot of people might be nervous about engaging in interfaith dialogue because they're so scared of those controversial issues, and actually it doesn't have to start there and it shouldn't start there.
SPEAKER_06:Absolutely. And we're going to come back to some of those ideas in a second. I want to sort of move the conversation on to looking at interfaith education, which I guess runs alongside sort of interfaith dialogue and interfaith weak, but actually is that sort of overarching thing that's a constant. So, how can we effectively do this? And I know that we've drawn on some of these ideas, but it'd be nice to tie them all together.
SPEAKER_04:Good luck with that one.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I would say that interfaith education is something that's done quite differently across the board, and there are a lot of local interfaith groups, for example, who bring in religious leaders to represent their faith community into local schools, which is great. And there's also, of course, RE, which can often become much more about giving the facts about what a faith believes. I think what's important about interfaith education is that it's about actually undoing some of that learning, and it's about saying, here's a way that you can grapple with and understand and curiously investigate somebody else's worldview. And we do that as an organization through number one, encounter, brilliant encounter that's set up in evidenced ways that really works and really is done sensitively and supports students, and storytelling. Those for us are the main ways that you can start a brilliant interfaith experience. But there are other organizations who approach it differently. Stacey, I'm sure you've got your own answer to this.
SPEAKER_04:You've seen a lot. I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, I'm completely agree. I mean, I'm I'm sitting here nodding, like I feel like that noddy dog from the Church of Insurance ads, because I completely resonates with me what you're saying. I think that it's safer to hide behind facts than it is to engage in the meaning behind those facts. So, what I mean by that is especially in primary schools, we can't be specialists in every single subject. So, in a lot of primary schools, teachers are delivering an RE curriculum, and there's this fear, I suppose, of being judged on how well that's being delivered, but actually they haven't had enough CPD or support to understand the meaning behind what they're teaching in the first place. So then it's very difficult for them to be able to impart that or engage their pupils to find that out in a classroom. I think one of the things is what we are hoping for RE now is very different to what teachers experienced when they were at school. So therefore, it's very difficult for them to practice what it is we're suggesting without having experienced it. So I think the first thing is we have to help those teachers to understand how it can be done before they can appreciate the benefits of it. So there's lots of guidance and there's lots of materials out there talking about a religions and worldviews approach, but ultimately, unless teachers have had the chance to experience it, to engage with it in exactly the same way as we're talking about, we need pupils to engage at different levels with interfaith dialogue to make it meaningful. Unless teachers have had that opportunity, how on earth can we expect them to have the confidence, the understanding, or the enthusiasm to deliver it that way? So, to me, then we go back to that original question, the Louisa that you asked, how can we get this going, religious education going? Well, those people that are developing the syllabuses, those people that are promoting this approach, those people that are producing resources, textbooks, and so on, are they really getting to a point where those teachers that they want to be using them understand what it is we want them to do. And it all comes down to that. And I think for me, that's why it's important that every single sacray experiences effective interfaith dialogue.
SPEAKER_06:And actually, part of that I think is those encounters that we've talked about, and is that that lived experience because actually that upskills the teacher as well as being a really important experience. And actually, Stacy, I know you involved you with RE Hubs. You know, there is a page where there are people that have got a training to be speakers in school. So we know that they are reputable and they know that they are trustworthy and they understand that remit. So that's definitely something to do. Something else you mentioned earlier, Stacey, is that people are sometimes very nervous to engage in interfaith education. They're worried they're gonna upset anybody, say the wrong thing. But actually the fact that you've called it this brave space is that actually you have to make the mistakes in order to learn. If you're in that interface dialogue, if you're doing interface education and you make a mistake, then actually it's helpful to do that so that you can learn. If you never get the chance to make mistakes, you don't know where your biases are or your misconceptions or you know your subconscious bias, all of those things you don't know unless you try, and that's why it sometimes takes a bit of bravery.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I think part of that bravery is being open. Being open to what you're being shown or told, being open to sharing and telling your story, etc. But also being open to people's questions. And I think it comes down a lot to questions because we can give as many facts and information as we want, but if you don't get a question in response, how do you know that somebody's actually heard you? How do you know that somebody's actually listened or taken it in or is even interested? One of the things that we talked about at this RE Hub speaker training session was not just what is it that teachers want their pupils to be able to do and remember, but what is it that you want the pupils to gain? Because gaining is so much more than just remembering more or knowing more information, we can gain so much more on an emotional level, on a spiritual level, and again, I'm gonna scare people senseless by talking about spirit, but we are humans, and no human is an island, and that's a very famous quote. But we are humans, and personable and personable interaction is part of who we are as humans, and so perhaps what's more scary than interfaith dialogue is actually how we've got to a point in the world where we're not able to do it.
SPEAKER_03:And I think actually that's the irony, yeah. And I think one part of the way that we set a brave space, one of the aspects of it is we call it oops and ouch. So it's about the way that you respond when someone said something that really hurts, or when someone's told you ouch, and you want to reframe it. And the most important thing, I think, in terms of setting up the space for that to work, is that we are expecting the best in other people. When we come into that space, we're expecting that they're not meaning to hurt us, and we've got some playful tools to be able to say, ouch, that really didn't sit right with me, or oops, I'm so sorry, what I meant to say was X. But what that takes is the emotional learning because you also need to be able to listen to yourself, and I maybe that's a part of the divisiveness of the current world that we live in that we forget sometimes is that actually sometimes the thing that we're missing is an understanding of our own pain, how to articulate our own pain and where it's come from. So it's a really special space, I think, that we're creating in these dialogue settings. And that part in particular, I think, can be really helpful. So you might want to come up with different words if you're working with older students. But oops and ouch works really well, especially in primary.
SPEAKER_04:I have to say, actually, it works brilliantly with secondary. I mean, I just copy that. But also with adults, you know, I think as adults, we probably are more nervous about upsetting others or saying the wrong thing than actually children are. And we teach them to be nervous. What we're doing is we're actually imposing on them our fears of getting it wrong, and this sense of no, you can't be seen to be offensive, and you can't be seen to be this, and you can't say this, and you can't. We're basically imposing that fear on our children, which is stunting their learning. You know, I remember young children talking about physical features, you know, there isn't this big loadedness of black or Asian that children have. We're giving that to them, and we're so scared that that's going to be said in our classroom, and a parent might hear, and therefore we're going to get told off. That actually we're making it worse. And I think it's so important to be able to teach our children and our young people to be able to say respectfully, that really hurts. That doesn't sit comfortably with me. Can I tell you a different way you might wish to say it?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because it takes a lot of guts. I agree with you to stand up and say, No, didn't like that, that's not comfortable. And it takes just as much guts to be able to take that on board and say, Yeah, you know what, I'm sorry. You know, it's almost as if the older we get, the harder it is for us to say sorry. And actually, I think there's a big part in getting it wrong and learning to say sorry is perhaps one of the best learning in life.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because it shows that you're learning, it shows that you're trying. If you're not even trying because you're too scared of getting it wrong, then you're not going to be learning.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, yeah, that's good. If people want to find a few more resources to support them in their interfaith education, where would we go?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so interfaith education, as we've been saying throughout this conversation, isn't just for interfaith week, it's throughout the year. And if you want, you can go on the Faith and Belief Forum website. We've got a whole host of resources that will help you to explore interfaith education in your classroom. So that's really for a student of any age, we will have a resource for them pretty much on our website. So starting off from our primary skills for dialogue resources, we then have dialogue not debate resources for key stage three, and we have a set of the art of QA, we call them resources, and that's for older students, and is really about what it means to artfully ask a question that's going to get the sort of answer that you want. So it's a bit more of an advanced approach towards dialogue, really thinking about analysing the type of questions that we're asking, but also the way that we're responding to keep the dialogue open and not close it down.
SPEAKER_04:But then I think that's a really relevant resource for teachers. But especially for those teachers that are nervous, I think that's a really relevant resource for them to be looking at because that might give them then the confidence to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_03:And we also have some gorgeous posters of those that you can print off and put on the wall. And we know from some of our school partners that you know they've been using our principles, the art of QA, we also have radio, which is the way that we set safe and brave spaces, and they put those posters on the walls, and then if anything feels a little bit tense and they think we need to explore this further, shall we create a space to explore this? Then they let's look at the poster, let's remind ourselves of the principles. Or if someone says something that causes some tension in the classroom, say, Oh, okay, let's investigate that. Why did that happen? Let's have a look at the art of QA poster and think, is there something here that we've missed? Yeah, is there another way that you might want to reframe that?
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, that sounds really, really, really helpful. Obviously, I've got the link to that.
SPEAKER_04:I just wanted to also mention that a lot of the organizations that some of our listeners might already be a part of or know about all had links from their websites to the Interfaith Week for Schools. And in addition to that, they were also highlighting some of the resources they already had. So it's not just necessarily new resources that we should be looking at. There's a lot of stuff that's already out there that we could be going and looking back at. So the RE Hubs had, I have to say that because of my job. So the RE Hubs has a whole section which is dedicated to interfaith dialogue resources in the lead up to the Interfaith Week. Cullum St. Gabriel's Trust also highlighted lots of examples. I think pretty much all of the partner organizations that Faith and Belief 4 and Manasseh worked with to put together that website, all signposted and pinned examples of those resources as well. There is so much out there. And the one other thing is don't forget the old Interfaith Week website because that's still live. Even though the Interfaith Network is no longer with us, that website is still there. And they've got some great resources on there.
SPEAKER_03:And I think I just want to say as well, you know, the reason why we are doing this is because we recognise the incredible work that's happening across the country and the things that teachers are doing on a daily basis to celebrate the diversity of their classes, but also the incredible work that's being done by organisations in the field. And I think we're quite a collaborative lot in the RE world. And I think what's motivating me to do this is just to put forward best practice and some inspiration and to celebrate all of that great work and try and kind of create a movement around it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah, and so actually, if if you are listening and you have got some resources or stories or experiences about interfaith education that you want to share or you need support or resources to improve how you do it, and you're finding it difficult to navigate around all the resources that are out there, please, please, please get in touch either to celebrate yourself or to ask for support because as you can see, there are people out there very, very passionate about this. It feels as though then a nice final message is to say that actually don't be afraid to have interfaith conversations. Whether that's part of Interfaith Week, whether that's part of interfaith education, don't be afraid to have those conversations. Yeah. Would that be right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Don't shut them down.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Think about how you can have them and try it. Just I mean, it's a bit like you don't know if you're going to be one of those marmite lovers or haters until you've tried it. Yeah. You know, so try it.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah. And guys, as we end, a question that I ask all my guests. If you could wake up tomorrow and one thing was different, what would it be?
SPEAKER_03:I think I've got my answer already. Go on, Carrie. I think it would be that everybody was just 10% more curious. Just a little bit more curious. Because I think a tiny bit of curiosity would lead to more and more and more. But just that little bit extra to make us want to go out and discover. So a tiny bit more curiosity.
SPEAKER_06:100%, Carrie. Thank you. Go on, Stacey.
SPEAKER_04:So what you've just done is just inspired me because I was really struggling with that question, but now I know exactly what I'm gonna say. Is in addition to having that 10% curiosity, it's people asking more questions. And I think the focus on the question being more important than the actual answer. Because there shouldn't be just one answer. And even if there is, there are lots of different ways to understand that answer, to reflect on, or to interpret that answer. So actually putting the focus back on the question, I think, is something that's quite important. So for me, I think having 10% more questions.
SPEAKER_06:No, it's great, isn't it? And actually, I think this kind of challenges maybe British culture because I think we confuse curiosity with rudeness you know, or nosiness. But actually, curiosity leads to empathy and compassion. So it's actually a very beautiful thing. Do you know what, ladies? We've spoken for nearly an hour and a half, and I kind of feel like we've only scratched the surface. Like it just feels like this very, very rich space, I think. It's been brilliant and I've loved it, and it's really enthusing. So thank you so much for just sharing your passion with us.
SPEAKER_04:No, thank you. It's such a pleasure. It's been really enjoyable. I mean, I love talking to Carrie anyway. I find her she inspires me a lot talking with her. And actually, it's been really lovely to have been able to have you kind of inspire even more of that conversation. So I thank you.
SPEAKER_06:No, absolute pleasure. My name is Louisa Jane Smith, and this has been the RE podcast. The podcast for those of you who think RE is boring, but it's not. It provides a brave space to engage with people who have different worldviews to you and to find those places of connection so that we can continue to provide a society that is diverse and mutually respectful. But thank you so much for listening to us bore the life out of you.