Interfaith Week
Waltham Toll Bar Academy hosted an Interfaith Week Panel with two Primary schools from Academies Enterprise Trust.
The event was organised by Head of Humanities Mr Liam Walker and Mrs Julie Childs from the two Primary Academies.
Year 7 and 8 students from Waltham Toll Bar Academy joined Year 6s from Utterby Primary Academy and North Thoresby Primary Academy for a Q&A panel with the representatives of several faiths and worldviews.
The event aimed to get people from different religious communities to start a conversation about faith with students where they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to learn about them.
Mr Walker commented: “We set the event up as a way to celebrate this year’s Interfaith Week by bringing in different voices from the local community to discuss what religious and non-religious worldviews mean to them by interacting with wide range of religious and non-religious worldviews including different Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and Humanist worldviews.”
The panel included:
- Rev. Patricia Barlow, representing the Anglican Christian Church
- Rev. Margaret Asiedu, a Methodist Minister
- Kate Harrison, who is a Humanist
- Shereen Alankar, a British Muslim
- Peter Altoft from the Reform Jewish community
- Kevin Nightingale representing orthodox Judaism
- Dr Anupam Sinha representing Hinduism
Mrs Charles said: “We are two small schools, so opportunities like this for us to visit big secondary schools and take part in events like this are brilliant for us.”
Year 8 student Roman Forbes asked: “Why did you decide to believe what you do?”
While many like Kevin Nightingale and Rev. Patricia Barlow answered that they were born into their faith, others explained to the students how they found their faith through others.
Humanist Kate Harrison explained that she was introduced to Humanism later in life. She said: “I feel that the better and kinder I am as a person and the more often I do things that other people appreciate, the better my life gets. I don’t feel that I had a choice in it, it’s just something I realised I identified with already.”
Shereen Alankar, a British Muslim told the students about how she met someone at college who was Muslim. It sparked her interest and she began to ask questions and look at other faiths. She commented: “I found that Islam answered all of my questions and it suited me. I researched further and converted to Islam before marrying my husband, who is a Palestinian Muslim.”
Kate Harrison with students at the event.
Riley Heseltine-McDonald asked: “How do your beliefs effect your everyday lives?”
Peter Altoft described how every moment in life is seen as a blessing. He said: “Everything from getting up in the morning or eating or seeing a beautiful sky is seen as a blessing, it means we have a reason to thank God. It impacts my life every day.”
Kevin Nightingale described how orthodox Judaism differs. “We have hundreds of commandments to live by and are taught to wear our hair and clothes a certain way in order to keep our faith, but essentially they all give the same message, to be the best person you can be.”
Mr Walker added: “We also wanted to be able to give students an authentic and first-hand understanding and experience of various lived belief systems, many of which they may not have interacted with before or not realise are in their local community in an effort to increase understanding, respect and tolerance.”
Mrs Childs said: “We want to thank everyone at Waltham Toll Bar Academy for making us feel so welcome. It was a great afternoon and we very much hope to be involved with projects like this in the future.”
Shereen Alankar speaking to students from Waltham Toll Bar Academy.
