At St James, we pride ourselves on nurturing the spirituality of everyone in the school community. All children have an inborn spirituality. However, if spirituality is not nurtured, it can wither. Spirituality is not the same as religious faith and focusses on developing our ability to:

• be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and perspective on life;
• acknowledge, respect different people’s faiths, feelings and values;
• have a sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them;
• use imagination and creativity in their learning;
• show a willingness to reflect on and learn from their experiences

We have agreed on a definition of spiritual development in our school community to support us as we consider spirituality.

“how we explore, share and reflect and grow into the person I want to be.”

To help everyone in school understand their developing spirituality, staff explain it using clear language and symbols that everyone can relate to. 

In line with staff training received from Salisbury Diocese at St James’, we use the Andrew Ricketts approach of Self, Others, World and Beyond to explore spirituality.

• Self: Spiritual learners describe a relationship with themselves. We talk about self-identity, we talk about knowing ourselves and our sense of being a unique person.

• Others: Spiritual learners describe a relationship with others. We talk of our feelings towards others we know but also of the recognition that we have a relationship with people whom we have never met. It is that wider connection that deepens our humanity and the thought that we are only fully human through our relationship with other people.

• World and Beauty: Spiritual learners describe a relationship with the world around us, its beauty and fragility. We talk of stunning views, stirring words, art that compels us, music that consoles us. The ‘ows and wows’ our world offers us and what that means to humanity.

• Beyond: Spiritual learners describe a relationship with what may lie beyond our vision and knowledge. This is the hardest aspect to articulate, mainly because there is nothing tangible to hold on to. However, children can have a growing awareness of their place in the world and a sense that life has a process.
• Work on this, coupled with our vision and values means that children at St James’ have a wide range of opportunities to think about themselves, others, the world beyond. We encourage children to become independent thinkers and wonderers. We model an environment of inclusion and respect. We allow children the space, process, imagination, relationships, intimacy and trust to be spiritual beings.