Pilgrimages - Finstock C.E. Primary School

Pilgrimages

The idea of pilgrimage – a spiritual journey to a sacred place – is buried deep within our understanding of spirituality and religious practice.

Pilgrimage is a meaningful journey to a sacred place. The journey is shared between all members of the community - Church, School and Families- to support and develop a deeper relationship as you walk and journey together. It provides the opportunity to step out of the non-stop busyness of lives, to seek a time of quiet and reflection. It gives us the chance to ‘walk through’ anything that we have on our minds, and is a time of ‘being’ rather than always ‘doing’.

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Autumn 2023

Our Autumn 2023 Pilgrimage focused on the Christian concept of 'Incarnation'. We created a 'Nativity Story Trail'. The children split the nativity story into 10 stations and each group led an activity to help deepen understanding.

At the end we posed our Big Questions:

  1. 'Why does Christmas matter to Christians?'
  2. 'Was Jesus the Messiah?'

Parent Voice

I really valued this pilgrimage. I've learnt things I genuinely did not know. It was a very comprehensive overview of the Christmas story and the children were really engaged in sharing their learning.

 

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Summer 2023

We held our Summer pilgrimage outdoors and invited our school community to join us in our outdoor reflection areas. The children set out examples of their work and created activities for our school community to engage with in order to deepen their understanding of our 'Big Questions', our value of Truthfulness, and to develop spirituality through Prayer Space activities. 

Parent Voice

"It was lovely to see the very enthusiastic retelling of the story of Pentescost! I really enjoyed seeing the 'feeling sorry' ribbons from Prayer Space in the reflection area"

"It was great to see the older children interacting with the younger children and supporting them through the activities"

"I loved that the whole community and Finstock family were together affirming their Christian beliefs"

Pupil Voice

"I love the fact that it brought our Finstock family and our whole community together and it brought everyone closer"

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Retelling of the story of Pentecost

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Spring 2022

Spring Pilgrimage

For our Spring pilgrimage, we turned our school hall into our sacred space. The children set out examples of their work and created activities for themselves and the rest of the school to engage with in order to deepen their understanding of our 'Big Questions'. 

Calm music was playing and the lights were dimmed to encourage reflection. 

Pupil voice

"I've enjoyed looking at how amazing Cedar and Oak's work is, and seeing the things people have learnt."

"I enjoyed thinking about Jesus and reflecting on how respected he was."

"We could reflect on much more than just in Prayer Space."

"This has made me feel relaxed and calm, it is so much fun."

"I feel calm after doing this lovely thing, meeting up to collectively worship."

"This Pilgrimage makes me feel happy and I liked all the activities. This was a fun way of looking back and forward and reflecting." 

Here are some photo's of our Spring Pilgrimage

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Autumn 2022

Autumn Pilgrimage

For our Autumn pilgrimage Cedar, Oak and Cherry exhibited their learning from the previous two terms. We displayed our Big Questions and set up activities for our friends to take part in. We had several Prayer Space activities on offer for children and adults to engage with spiritually.  

Pupil Voice

"I enjoyed supporting the younger children to build their gifts to the earth."

"I created my response to the Incarnation part of the BIG FRIEZE. I like showing my thoughts and feelings through art."

"During our Pilgrimage we supported the younger children to post their letters to Santa and make Christmas cards for their friends."

"My Mum came to the Pilgrimage. She could see my RE book and I could show her my reflections in the whole class book. We did some of the BIG questions together."

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