About the Faith Trails

Wandsworth SACRE, which is responsible for the oversight of Religious Education and collective worship in community schools in the local authority, has developed three Faith Trails for pupils at the upper end of primary school. The Faith Trails aim to give an inspiring and motivating opportunity for interactive and interfaith learning outside the classroom, to consolidate the basic knowledge that pupils have gained about each of the major World faiths in the primary years. Pupils spend up to an hour in three different places of worship belonging to contrasting faiths/denominations on one day. The objective is to widen pupils’ horizons, and for them to develop an appreciation of what it is to celebrate a faith. It provides a chance to see interfaith engagement and to perceive how different faiths are a part of the same local community. 

Wimbledon Parkside Trail

St Paul’s is part of the Wimbledon Parkside Trail, which also visits the Wimbledon Synagogue and the Buddhapadipa Temple. In the last two weeks of term, St Paul’s hosted year 5 classes from Our Lady of Victories RC primary school in Putney and Swaffield primary in Wandsworth. The children all had a wonderful time!

Revd Susan and Revd Jack along with churchwardens and lay reader Norman Allen split the pupils into groups, so that they could look in detail at different areas of the church and ask questions. Children gathered around the font, at the beautifully restored reredos, at the pulpit and in the Lady Chapel. They were allowed “hands on” experience in holding communion vessels and ringing the bell.  While the pupils from Our Lady of Victories were all Christian and interested in the similarities with their church – and differences such as a woman priest – the children from Swaffield had a variety of faith backgrounds, or none, and their questions reflected this.

Teachers reported the value of the children being able to view artefacts and resources, asking questions and noticing the similarities between other faiths and their own and said the delivery of information was of very high quality. The headteacher of one school also commented that it was so valuable for pupils to explore other places of worship, ask questions politely, respect beliefs, quash any misconceptions and identify similarities and differences, adding that it was so valuable of the local faith communities to build relationships and welcome one another. Comments from the children included, “I really like the church because it was bigger than ours and very well decorated” and “I liked that we got to go around and see the different parts” and “we got to ring the bell!”  The children’s evaluations, without exception, highly recommended the trail and described it as “fun”, “interesting” and “adventurous”.

 General

Angela Rundle, who is the local authority officer for SACRE and began to set up the trails two years ago, has found an increasing interest from schools, some of whom have now been on all three trails and sign up again each year, making it a part of their regular curriculum offer in RE. The local nature of the trips, being able to walk or use free public transport, is also an attraction.

The other trails in operation are Southfields (visiting the Fazl Mosque in Gressenhall Road, the Sikh Gurdwara in Merton Road and the Friends Meeting House on Wandsworth High St) and Balham (visiting the Balham Mosque, Balham Mandir (Hindu temple) and St Mary and St John the Divine church, all on Balham High Road).