Visits and Visitors

Throughout their time at St Margaret’s, our children visit a variety of places of worship in
multi-cultural Leicester and the surrounding areas, which are in contrast to the demographics
of Stoke Golding.  

Through these opportunities, pupils learn to understand, respect and celebrate difference
and diversity. This promotes, equality, respect and non-discrimination, as well as principles
of diversity, unity and freedom of religion.

Our visits and visitor’s policy mean pupils will all have the opportunity to visit (as a minimum)
the following places of worship during their time at St Margaret’s;

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RE Pupil Conference

Throughout the world, many people practice different religions. As our world becomes more global and diverse, it is important to respect each other and how similar and different people are.

Year 2 have spent a wonderful day exploring this idea with other Year 2 children from across Leicestershire.

At St Margaret’s we really enjoy the collective worships that are led by The Kings Lodge. We like meeting Christians from around the world, learning how they worship and hearing the stories from the Bible that they share with us.

Today, we have said a huge thank you to Reverend Linda Blay, after many years as a minister she is retiring. We are very grateful that she has spent the last 13 of those years in our Benefice where she has worked closely with the school: supporting, encouraging and guiding.

Thank you, to everyone at The King’s Lodge for helping us celebrate Cultural Diversity Day. The children loved encountering people from many different backgrounds, and celebrating the wonders of their countries.

#internationalculturaldiversityday The children of St Margaret’s have enjoyed a trip around the world sampling music, food, cooking, dancing and artwork from many different cultures with thanks to everyone from The Kings Lodge. Flag of South Korea Flag of Brazil Flag of Congo - Kinshasa Flag of Egypt Flag of United States Earth globe europe-africa #diversity #culture 

To conclude the unit, 'How can following God bring justice and freedom?' Year Six had visitors from the Salvation Army and the charity Feed the Hungry. The children really enjoyed listening to our visitors before reflecting on the key question and choosing a way to respond to their learning. They particularly enjoyed sorting and packing clothes for refugees in the Ukraine.

As part of their RE topic, 'What kind of World did Jesus want?' Year 4 visited St Margaret's Church to investigate the question, 'Are Christians making a kind of World that God wanted?'  They photographed clues and interviewed church leaders before presenting their ideas to the class.

RE Day

On Thursday 9th March, five children from Year Five attended a conference at the Leicester Diocese, 'Respect for All.'  They joined twelve other schools from Leicestershire to share ideas and look at ways of understanding and respecting the beliefs and values of others.  We all had a wonderful day and enjoyed meeting new people as well as taking part in fun activities and debates.  The artwork that was produced collectively was fantastic and extremely thought provoking.  As always, the children were excellent ambassadors for the school and made us extremely proud ~ well done Year Five.

'Living Well Together' Conference

On Friday 18th March ten year six children attended a ‘Living Well Together’ conference at St. Martin’s House in Leicester. We were one of several primary schools there but there were also some teenagers from secondary schools. The children took part in a range of activities to explore how everyone can live well together. Questions we discussed included – What helps us live well together? How does religious faith help us to live well together? What do you think needs to be taught to help people live well together? The day concluded with each school summarising their thoughts from the day. Below is some of what our children shared:

• Accept people for who they are and celebrate and appreciate being different.

• Be open to discussions and don’t be afraid to talk about being different.

• Don’t judge people because of their religion and colour.

• We need knowledge and understanding of others so we can challenge misconceptions and come to our own opinions and acceptance.

Our children showed themselves to be good listeners, excellent communicators and open to other people’s ideas and thoughts – well done!

Musical RE in schools conference

On Wednesday 16th March, five year 5 pupils went to Lutterworth College to take part in a day conference for pupils, ‘Musical RE in school.’  They enjoyed working with different primary schools from around Leicestershire and also Year 13 pupils from Lutterworth College.  We had an exciting day with nationally acclaimed songwriter Stephen Fischbacher, learning and performing his songs and linking his music to RE. 

** Following on from this conference, with the help of Mrs Nelson our RE Governor, Thomas, Harry, Erin, Amicia and Imogen led the whole school in collective worship, sharing with them some of the things they had learnt. **

Advent Service 2015

Our school councillors in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 attended an Advent Service at Leicester Cathedral. The service was based around 'Journey to Christmas' through the eyes of Mary, Joseph and the donkey. The children sang, heard readings, wrote their own prayers and listened to a talk by Bishop John. The service ended outside at the nativity scene with a prayer by the manger. Afterwards, the children had lunch together in the Grand Hall at St. Martin's House. Lots of children from other schools attended the service too.

Friday 4th December Visit to The King's Lodge

Today Year 5 and Year 4 visited the King's Lodge. The children really enjoyed learning about the 'Life and Times of Jesus' through exciting activities. They were really keen to find out about the temple in Jerusalem through a workshop and models and enjoyed building their own model. In the cyber-café they learnt Bible stories through interactive videos, our children knew a lot of the Bible stories but this activity really helped them to see how they linked together. There was great excitement about the 3D cinema experience and wearing the glasses, children thought the film about Jesus' life was "awesome" and "amazing." The discussion session about the Bible and Christmas gave the children the opportunity to ask their own questions. We had a wonderful time and were very grateful to the King's Lodge.

Bethan said,

" I enjoyed everything this morning but what made the trip incredible was how lovely all the staff were and just how the atmosphere was so warm and welcoming and how everyone is so happy and glad to be there and chilled out. It made me feel happy and relaxed. I had an amazing time, I would go again if I could.

Poppy said,

"The thing I enjoyed the most about this morning was the cyber place because I felt it told me more about God than anywhere else, but in a fun way! I also liked the way all the lovely people understood me when I spoke about God."

Alex said,

"The thing I enjoyed the most was the 3D cinema because it was an amazing story."

Justice and Poverty

In RE Year 5 are learning about 'Justice and Poverty.'  Today as it is "Children in Need Day"  Mrs Ridout, from the charity 'Aim for Change,' came in to talk to us about her recent visit to Uganda.  We enjoyed finding out about the similarities and differences between our lives.  Mrs Ridout talked to us about how her Christian beliefs had inspired her to help so many people.  We were all very touched by what we learnt today and felt we would like to do something to help the charity.  Next week we will be presenting our fundraising ideas to the class, after choosing how, we will then work as a team to raise money for Uganda with 'Aim for Change.'

Friday 9th October 2015 ~ What does the Holy Trinity mean to Christians?

Today Year 5 have spent the day learning about the Holy Trinity and the ways in which the three persons of the Trinity are the same, yet distinct.  During the day the children interviewed Michelle Nelson, our RE governor, questioning her about what the Holy Trinity means to her as a Christian.  They asked some very deep and considered questions which enabled them to teach the Year 1 class about the Holy Trinity in the afternoon.  Please see the RE pages for more information about our learning, including photos of what we did during the day.

Thursday 21st May 2015

Today our whole school celebrated Cultural Diversity Day.  In our class rooms we all learnt about a different country:

Year 1 ~ Thailand

Year 2 ~ China

Year 3 ~ The Continent of South America

Year 4 ~ Australia

Year 5 ~ India

Year 6 ~ Zimbabwe

We investigated the different cultures, beliefs, traditions, customs, languages and foods of these countries.  Throughout the day we had workshops delivered by visitors from the King’s Lodge.  They came from many parts of the world and shared with us their different cultures and customs, including sharing stories from countries such India, Korea, China, Brazil, Chile and the continent of Africa.

We enjoyed African drumming, South American cooking, sampling Indian food, writing in Korean and Chinese and visiting Africa through stories and artifacts.  Our guests were fascinating and inspirational and we all had an amazing day.

Wednesday 29th April 2015

This morning, Years 5 and 6 visited St Martin’s High School to take part in a multi faith workshop.  They had a wonderful time visiting different stands and investigating different faiths and beliefs.  They questioned faith representatives to deepen their knowledge and understanding and reflected on the similarities and differences between the faiths.  Faith leaders were very impressed by the children’s knowledge, understanding and respect of other faiths.

Friday 24th April 2015

This term, Year 4 have been learning Sikhism and reflecting on the value Sikhs give to being generous and including everybody.  The children considered what they could learn from this.  After discussing many ways in which they could show generosity to include others they decided to make cakes for the drop in center at the Salvation Army in Nuneaton.  The center helps to look after homeless people by providing food, clothes and someone to talk to.  The children really enjoyed making the cakes and supporting the center.

As a result of all their hard work, Major Conny Vogler from the Nuneaton Salvation Army, came to visit the school and talked to the children about Christian’s views on generosity and helping others.  She talked to them about the Salvation Army and Germany which they found fascinating.  The children particularly enjoyed learning the hymn, ‘God’s Love is so Wonderful,’ in German.

They were particularly proud when their efforts were recognised in ‘Kids Alive,’ the National Salvation Army magazine.

Friday 7^th March 2015

This week, we have enjoyed learning about Holy Week and the Easter story.  We particularly liked Wes’ assembly about this special time.  Today, year 4 did a wonderful job of leading our whole school in worship at St Margaret’s Church and retelling the Easter story.

Monday 2nd February 2015

Today EYFS visited St Margaret’s Church to investigate what makes our church special.

January 2015

Today Bob Brown a representative from the Diocesan Tanzania link group came to talk to us about life in Tanzania, in particular a rural area called Kiteto.  We learned about the lifestyle of adults and children, schools, religion and culture and climbing Kilimanjaro.

The first thing we found out about was the water supply in rural areas of Tanzania, we found out that the women and sometimes children collect the families water supply from a water source, this can take about three hours, and is usually fifteen litres a day. We were very shocked to find out about how much water an average family in England uses in comparison.

We went on a journey to try and imagine what it would be like getting water in less developed countries.  We were shocked by how heavy it was to carry a full bucket of water, and in Tanzania they carry it on their heads!  We tried on traditional Tanzanian clothing, learned about farming and agriculture in Tanzania and then had a go at being coffee farmers and roasting, grinding and making coffee.

Tuesday 25th  November 2014

Today in assembly Deacon Phil came to talk to us about the work he does in Uganda.  He talked to us about the lives of children in Uganda and we  compared this to our lives.  England and Uganda are very similar in size but we were shocked by the differences in our lifestyles.

We had lots of questions to ask Deacon Phil and some of us had some ideas about how we might be able to help people less fortunate than we are.

17th January 2014

Investigating different faiths with students from George Elliot School, Nuneaton

Today some pupils from different faiths and cultures came to visit us from George Elliot School. They talked to us about their faiths, beliefs, values and cultures.

To begin with we watched a presentation by each of our visitors.  They showed us lots of artefacts from their religions, such as clothes, prayer beads, 5 Ks, Murtis and prayer mats.  We learnt so much from their presentations and loved looking at the artefacts.  Next, we went into small groups and interviewed our guests.  We found out so much about their religions and what they believed and asked some very deep and challenging questions.

Molly said, “Today was very important to me because I found out that just because people have a different religion, doesn’t mean that they aren’t normal, it just means that they have different beliefs from us.”

Kieran said, “I learnt a lot.  We welcomed a Sikh visitor.  I learnt a lot of facts from her and we actually had a teacher who was a Sikh.  I will always remember this religion.  Today made me feel so happy because of the people we met.”

James said, “My favourite part of the day was me and my friends talking about religions with the three boys at our table while we ate our biscuits and juice.  I felt really happy and joyful and it has been a big experience.  The three boys at the table looked very different to us but we were all the same.  The boys made us laugh and we had lots of fun.”