All Year 9 students across the secondary schools within Wickersley Partnership Trust have taken part in a pilot project with The Faith and Belief Forum.
The Faith & Belief Forum is a group that was founded in 1997 as the Three Faiths Forum (focussing initially on bringing understanding between Jews, Christians & Muslims). Over the years the organisation’s work has expanded to include people of all faiths and beliefs, both religious and non-religious.
As part of the sessions students explored how to develop a safe space for active listening and effective dialogue to learn about different ideas and viewpoints. Students then joined a virtual interfaith panel in which two trained speakers from different faith and belief backgrounds shared their personal stories and answered student questions. Across our five secondary schools the interfaith panels included the views of: Agnosticism, Christianity, Humanism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and the modern Pagan new religious movement (Asatru).
Wickersley Partnership Trust believes that young people should feel confident and able to communicate and collaborate with anyone, regardless of their faith, belief, culture or background. Therefore, we are committed to ensuring our curriculum enables students to develop the skills and attributes to play their full role in today’s diverse society. We are incredibly proud of the conduct students displayed during these sessions and look forward to collaborating with The Faith and Belief Forum again in the future.