Places of Worship Guidelines

Virtual Visits

What are the benefits of good school/church links?

Many churches have close links with local schools, and also appreciate the value of school visits to their churches. Other churches and schools may be ready to develop these links. Here are some of the benefits that can be gained through developing such contacts:

The benefits to the school of visiting Christian places of worship:

1. Church visits allow pupils to encounter Christianity first-hand, often challenging the stereotyped or over-simplistic portrayals found in text books.
   
2. They allow pupils to meet believers from different denominations within the context of their own worshipping communities.
   
3. Pupils can gain an insight into the wider life of the church community and how it lives out its beliefs in todays world. This can help pupils to see how life issues are viewed from Christian perspectives such as:
   • relating to contemporary culture
   • caring for the sick and elderly
   • responding to poverty
   • dealing with ethical issues
   • acting on environmental and third world issues

   This enables pupils to take religion out of its ‘R.E.’ box and see it as relevant to everyday life.

4. Visiting places of worship is a multi-sensory experience involving sight, smell, touch, hearing and even taste. This can help pupils of all abilities to absorb and retain more information.
   
5. Pupils are freer to explore their own interests and questions beyond those raised by secondary sources in the classroom.
   
6. Such visits are recommended in the Surrey Agreed Syllabus as valuable learning experiences related to Attainments Target 2: Learning from Religion
   
7. They are looked on favourably by OfSTED inspectors when shown to be part of an integrated R.E. programme, and they help meet the recent Citizenship requirements for greater links with local communities.
   

The benefits for the church in having a school visit:

1. Such visits establish and build up local links and relationships between the church and the school, which can help the church in its links with the community, both local and worldwide.
   
2. They provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the church and its beliefs.
   
3. They provide a natural means of access to places of worship, especially for people who are unfamiliar with them.
   
4. They allow the church to be seen in a positive light and enable pupils to see that a church is not just a building but also a living community of believers, giving pupils a ‘feel’ of Christianity and a sense of the ‘spiritual’.
   
5. Ministers learn how children and young people perceive the church through the sort of questions they ask and comments they make.