RE Matters has just launched their ‘Bullying and Belief Toolkit’ a pack of resources to support schools to explore the topic of religious bullying. St Peter’s Saltley Trust and Westhill Endowment funding enabled this project (which began in the London Borough of Newham) to be trialled in the West Midlands region and further developed into the finished toolkit. The project’s origins were in Newham Student SACRE members’ experiences of religious bullying following terrorist attacks in London in 2017 and 2018. Claire Clinton, of RE Matters, writes: ‘The students had a strong desire to see children and young people educated on religious bullying in schools, to hopefully stop others experiencing similar things. The project began with the production of films by the students and faith leaders and the resources in this toolkit are the culmination of their work.
The toolkit contains: lesson plans, assembly ideas, resources and films for five 60-minute lessons for both primary and secondary schools. They could be used in RE, PSHE or Citizenship lessons, or as part of Anti-Bullying or Interfaith Week.
The toolkit has been trialled in the West Midlands, London and the North East of England and we are excited at being able to launch it nationally.
Fiona Moss National RE Adviser says ‘This excellent pack of materials is essential reading for all senior leaders in primary and secondary schools and for all those tasked with supporting pupils to consider the issues around faith-based bullying. The fully resourced lessons in this set of materials will encourage discussion and debate, provide first-hand experience for pupils to learns from sharing knowledge and allowing for creative responses from pupils.’
The resources are all free to download on the NATRE website – and we hope to see many schools using and adapting these resources in their schools’.