Experiential RE supdocs.indd - SfE
Experiential RE supdocs.indd - SfE
Experiential RE supdocs.indd - SfE
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Sue Phillips<br />
Sue teaches at Bognor Regis Community College in West Sussex where she is Head of <strong>RE</strong>,<br />
Professional Tutor and an Advanced Skills Teacher working on in reach within her own school. In<br />
her AST role Sue supports a number of departments through coaching and mentoring. A trained<br />
counsellor, she delivers CPD on communication skills together with multi sensory learning and<br />
assessment.<br />
Over the past ten years she has developed an approach to <strong>RE</strong> which she calls the Theatre of<br />
Learning.<br />
Pupils work, using music, in circles within and around huge multi-sensory sets representing<br />
whatever aspect of the religious tradition she is teaching. The active and experiential activities<br />
which take place in the Theatre of Learning enable pupils to develop their own spirituality,<br />
empathise with beliefs and practices different from their own and promote high quality written<br />
work, enabling and inspiring pupils to write up to level eight. The techniques of the Theatre of<br />
Learning can be adapted to any programme of study and any age range and are being used by<br />
teachers in both primary school and to teach sixth form.<br />
Sue now demonstrates the techniques of the Theatre of Learning in courses she runs regularly in<br />
her own classroom for teachers on the south coast and, as time permits, at venues around the<br />
country.<br />
In schools where Theatre of Learning is being used, the techniques have transformed motivation,<br />
behaviour and recruitment to GCSE, improved examination results and enabled teachers to<br />
experience more job satisfaction and fulfilment as their own creativity and spirituality is developed<br />
alongside that of their pupils.<br />
Sue has an international reputation through her presentations at the International Conference on<br />
Children’s Spirituality and her writing in their journal. She has written a chapter for an international<br />
handbook on <strong>RE</strong> and spirituality to be published in Australia later this year. She has demonstrated<br />
her work at the National Symposium of Religious Education in Australia and New Zealand and<br />
presented Theatre of Learning in <strong>RE</strong> and Citizenship throughout Australia to teachers in the<br />
Catholic and Lutheran church in August 2006.<br />
Articles on Theatre of Learning have appeared in the TES, the SHAP Journal for World Religions,<br />
<strong>RE</strong> Today and the International Journal for Children’s Spirituality.<br />
A series of five teacher resource files containing lesson recipes for all aspects of <strong>RE</strong> are available<br />
from <strong>SfE</strong> - samples can be viewed on the website www.sfe.co.uk/theatreoflearning.<br />
Sue can be contacted at njphillips@supanet.com<br />
18 <strong>Experiential</strong> <strong>RE</strong>: Supporting documents