Scenarios

In-School Scenarios

In this section, we look at a number of situations in which you might find yourself when you go into schools.

Depending on your experience and temperament, some will be easier for you to deal with than others. Each person will differ. Here, for each scenario, we suggest:

Using The Scenarios

You might find it helps to look through the scenarios first, recognising your personal reaction and then thinking of ways you might approach them.

Remember that the situation may be different depending on whether you are going into an Aided, Controlled or County School, or whether the school is primary or secondary.

The 17 scenarios...

  1. You have been invited to take a specifically Christian collective worship / assembly in the local school. You discover that 40% of the children are Muslim. What do you do?
  2. The nursery class of the local school wants to look at baptism in your church. How will you set about preparing an appropriate session?
  3. A Year 6 class is expecting to do a walk-through Communion Service as part of their RE lesson and you will be leading them. Some parents have objected. What happens next?
  4. You have been asked to attend a Divali ceremony at the school. What is your response?
  5. You have been asked to do something about Easter with Years 1 & 2, but you have been asked not to mention anything about the Crucifixion. How do you respond?
  6. You have made approaches to your local school about assemblies and RE. You have been accepted, but given a list of 'dos' and 'don'ts', including only very limited reference to Christianity. How do you respond?
  7. You and two or three others have offered to run a tea-time club (e.g. Christian Union) at school. The Headteacher asks a) to see all the material you intend to use b) to vet it against their multi-faith policy. What do you do?
  8. You are asked to take part in a lesson on Easter. It soon becomes obvious that the teacher doesn't know anything about the subject. What do you / could you do?
  9. You are in a school where you are the Chair of Governors. While you are taking an RE lesson, one of the pupils tells you about inappropriate behaviour to another pupil by a teacher. What do you do?
  10. You are taking a Year 5 lesson about Christian life. One pupil announces that her parents have just divorced. What do you do next?
  11. You are taking a Year 9 lesson about Christian life. One pupil starts to talk about her older sister having an abortion. What do you do next?
  12. A child in your Year 5 class says 'My Dad says God doesn't exist'. What's your reply?
  13. There is a national disaster. You are asked to come to the school and give appropriate support. What will you do?
  14. There is a death in the school of a Christian child. How will you respond?
  15. There is a death in the school of a Muslim child. How will you respond?
  16. You are in a primary school, where you get on well with the Head. However, you notice that the class teacher is teaching about Noah's Ark in a totally inappropriate way. What do you do?
  17. You are invited into the local secondary school to take a question and answer session on Christian attitudes. Most of the questions are unproblematic, but they suddenly start to turn on the subject of sexual morality, including your own. How do you respond?

Afterwards... identify the top five qualities that would help clergy working in schools!