An interview with Hannah Booth, Supply Teacher
Please introduce yourself and tell us something about your involvement with Carpenters School.
My name is Hannah Booth. I’m a Supply Teacher but I’ve worked with Sheryll Alexander in another school and she’s brought me in to work with a range of classes across the school. Carpenters is a lovely school. It seems to gel together. The children are really supportive of each other. It has a very friendly atmosphere and the staff are very supportive. It feels like it’s a school that is going places.
What are your feelings about teaching RE? Is it something you enjoy or dread?
I enjoy teaching RE. I’m a Christian myself and I very much enjoy teaching all the different religions and beliefs. The children enjoy learning about the whole variety of religions and their festivals. It’s very important that young people get a sense that there are many different faiths in the world and that people have different points of view which can be respected.
RE can be a touchy subject for some people because it touches on faith and beliefs. How do you deal with the need to be aware of these sensitivities?
It’s important to remember that the curriculum wants us to teach a little about all the religions. If a parent is worried that we are teaching their little Muslim or Hindu child something about Christianity, then I would explain that we’re not challenging their beliefs at all and we’re not here to brainwash children into ‘believing’ anything. I might point out that as the children grow up they’re going to encounter allsorts of belief systems in allsorts of walks of life and we’re simply introducing them to the ideas behind religions... many different religions... without pushing any one in particular.
You say you’re a Christian. Does that ever make it harder for you to teach Christianity within the RE schemes of work without promoting Christianity above the other religions?
I don’t think so. I’m always upfront with the children about what I believe. I’ve never found it a problem to teach other religions and discuss where other people are coming from in their religious ideas. A good thing to do is to incorporate RE into other subjects like history and geography because it then means something to the children when you can point out where certain religions have come from and how they’ve spread and developed as people have moved around over a period of time. Some times the children are really amazed at how old most of the religions are. Basically children really enjoy learning about religions and I’ve encountered very few problems.