Dear Parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes,
The pupils of Our Lady of Lourdes School are seeking people in our local school and parish community to support us with our RE learning this half term about modern ‘Pentecost People’. We would be grateful if you were able to assist with this.
This half term, our whole school focus for our RE learning is based on Pentecost. The children have been learning about the recount of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit by exploring the scriptures, so that they can retell what happened. Our topic moves forward to explore the question: What is a Pentecost Person? The children will be taught that, since the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke to those they met about the Good News, people who believe in God have continued to live their lives differently – to live remembering what Jesus taught and what he showed in his life. We will teach the children about people who have lived their lives differently, by first looking at the group of Pentecost people, who we read about in the Bible, such as: Peter, Paul and the Gospel writers. Then we will learn about people today who believe in God and try to live as God would want. These will be examples of modern ‘Pentecost People’.
In order for the teachers to teach about modern ‘Pentecost People’ and provide good real life examples for the children to learn from, we are looking for volunteers to provide us with this information. Therefore I am contacting a range of different believers (men, women, older, younger, ordained and lay) from our school and parish community to see if they are able to assist with our ‘data’ collection. We were hoping to interview people directly by asking various different questions. Please see here for the questions, in order to help the children achieve the level of attainment they are working towards. Obviously, we would not want to ask anyone anything without giving them time to prepare ideas and examples which you feel comfortable saying.
If you feel you are able to help in any way by providing an example of a modern Pentecost Person, it would be greatly appreciated. We would need the information as soon as possible, within the next week (week beginning 04/05/15) or possible week after (week beginning 11/05/15). There are various ways you could help us. Firstly, we can arrange a time for you to visit one of the classes so that the children can interview you. We would also like to film/record the interview so that other classes can also access the information. Another way could possibly be that just a teacher interviews you and films/records it, so that the information can be used in classes. Finally, if you are unable to come into school or do not wish to be filmed, you could write down the answers to the questions and send/e-mail to school. This information can then be distributed to teachers to use.
I appreciate that you are busy, however real life examples are always fantastic models to the children and helps them learn much better. Anything that you can provide would be extremely useful and beneficial to us. If you are able to help, please contact the school office to arrange a time when you could come into school for the children or teacher to conduct the ‘interview’ or send in/e-mail your responses for the attention of myself.
Thank you very much for your time.
Lorraine Davies
Assistant Headteacher / RE coodinator