How BBC’s Pilgrimage Transformed My RE Lessons

Written by: Katie Freeman – RE Lead, Bickleigh Down CofE Primary School
Chair of NATRE

When you hear the word ‘Pilgrimage’; I wonder what the first thing that comes to mind is.  During a recent unit that I taught with my Year 4, asked this question and interestingly my pupils were only able to talk about the Hajj. This simple question and answer have led me to redrafting a unit of work for my pupils, whilst also taking inspiration from BBC2 pilgrimage series.

In Year 4, one of our units of work is taking from the Understanding Christianity scheme of work, the big question for this unit is ‘Why do Christians call the day that Jesus died Good Friday?’. Within this unit, the children build upon their knowledge of the key events from the Easter Story by using a range of different translations from the Bible. They also focus on the emotions of Jesus’ Mother, Mary throughout the key events of holy week. When I had previously taught the unit, we had focused on the promise of salvation for Christians and the forgiveness of sins that Jesus’ death and resurrection brings for them. After their work in Year 2 and our benchmark topic assessment, I could see that the children already had a good knowledge of this so decided that I would focus the ‘understanding the impact’ element of this topic on the idea of pilgrimage.

After working through the substantive knowledge with the children and building their knowledge of the story through text analysis and the creation of their own story timelines, we went on to thinking carefully about the emotions of Mary throughout Holy Week.  Once we had done this, I showed the children photographs of three locations in the Holy Land.  I asked the children to use their knowledge of the key events to suggest where these locations might be and why they might be important to Christians today and those from the past.

Once the children had correctly identified the locations as The Garden of Gethsemane, Calvery and a Tomb, we spent time talking about why a Christian might want to visit these places and what they might think about when they were standing there. The children were then given an activity sheet which had these photographs on them and a thought bubble that was attached to each one. The children were encouraged to write in role a Christian pilgrim, sharing what their thoughts might be when they were standing there. I was in awe of the children’s responses to these places and how they were able to carefully consider what a pilgrim might be thinking.

When reflecting on the Garden Tomb and writing in role as a pilgrim, one child wrote ‘Wow, I can’t believe that Joseph gave up his family tomb for Jesus, I feel very happy because this means Joseph cared for Jesus and recognised who he was. Standing here makes me feel very special’.

Whilst reflecting on a picture of Calvary, one child shared the thoughts of a pilgrim by writing ‘Wow, I can’t believe that Jesus died for my sins and other people’s too. I am angry that he was hurt here but also, I can’t believe that I am able to stand here’.

After looking at and reflecting on these places, I explained to the children that people from different religious and non-religious worldviews have been, and do go on pilgrimage to different places. I explained the idea of a spiritual journey to them and asked what different they thought a journey like this might make to someone’s life. I then used the ERA website to show the introductory clip to BBC2’s Pilgrimage, a Road to Rome. This clip was excellent in sharing what a pilgrimage is and showing what a modern-day pilgrim might look like. We talked as a class about how a pilgrimage to Jerusalem might impact on a Christian and what sort of spiritual journey they might go on.

Whilst teaching this topic, I was lucky enough to be invited to the press launch for the new series of BBC Pilgrimage, the road to North Wales. Before attending the launch, I asked the children what sort of questions they would ask a modern-day pilgrim about how their journey had impacted on their lives. Some of the questions that the children came up with were as follows:

• If you talked about religion on the walk, did any of the discussions change your worldview? (Jack)
• What spurred you on during the tough times? (Archie)
• When you were on pilgrimage, did you meet anyone who influenced your worldview or changed the way that you think? (Lacey)
• Did you stop anywhere to find out about other religions?  What did you learn? (Rani)

At the end of the press screening, we were able to ask the pilgrims questions and also interview them in smaller group sessions. It was wonderful to be able to take actual answers back to the children from pilgrims of different religious and non-religious worldviews.

In our next lesson, I showed the children some photographs of some of the celebrity pilgrims and showed the children the route that they had walked together. We thought about what they might have seen on the walk and what they might of talked about. I then shared the following quotes from the pilgrims with the children:

I had two or three religious experiences where the divine relieved itself to me.  It hasn’t happened since so I am deeply grateful. (Tom)

We had lots of discussions about forgiveness –my brother died on Everest.  I did a lot of letting go of resentment for people who could have helped my brother more.  (Spencer)

There was a thin space for me at the top of Snowdon – you could see so far to where heaven meets Earth.  I had a journey through grief and processing that grief. (Michaela)

As a class, we reflected on the different experiences these pilgrims had and what their quotes said about what they had learnt. I was in awe of the children’s responses to these questions, they were able to pick up that although each of these pilgrims had a different worldview and lived experience, they had all taken a step on life’s big journey and been able to reflect on their own spirituality.

Later we discussed how people planning a pilgrimage might have helped the pilgrims to take a step in reflecting on life’s big questions. I then encouraged the children to become members of the production team. They were given the task of planning next year’s pilgrimage series for the BBC. The children had to think about the type of people who would interact well with each other, the places that they might visit, how these places would help the pilgrims to develop their own spirituality and the type of accommodation that they might need to book for the pilgrims.

One child said that they would like to have David Attenborough, Usain Bolt, Bradley Walsh and Taylor Swift on next year’s pilgrimage series because they would be able to have interesting discussions about nature and religion and spend time thinking about how these two link together. They also said that they thought that visiting places of worship including Mandirs and churches would help give the pilgrims feelings of peace whilst also giving them time to think about life’s big questions. Interestingly, this child also thought that the pilgrims should stay in hostels because it would help them to reflect on how lucky they are to be able to stay in ‘fancy hotels’ in their normal lives.

Another child said that they would like to invite Stormzey, Ed Sheeran, Usain Bolt and Taylor Swift on their pilgrimage.  They said that they thought that camping at different stages of the pilgrimage would be good and help them to focus more on the idea of God, seeing through the eyes of people who don’t have everything in life. They also thought that visiting paces of worship that were different to their own worldview would be helpful for the pilgrims and enable them to think about the worldviews of other people.

At the end of the unit, I asked the children to describe what a pilgrimage was here are some of their responses:

A pilgrimage is a journey to a holy place like Jerusalem. The journey helps pilgrims to feel closer to God. (Ollie)

A pilgrimage is a long journey to a holy place.  A Christian might go to Rome or Jerusalem.  They go to these places so that they have the opportunity to draw closer to God and also take their minds off bad things that might have happened to them. (Mo)

A pilgrimage is a special journey where they get closer to God and be able to talk to him. (Chloe)

This unit has been a real joy to teach, it has been interesting to see the children’s positionality and understanding of pilgrimage change throughout their study of it. I am really looking forward to teaching this topic again next year and using the new clips from the BBC2 series that are now available on TrueTube.  I’d also like to extend my thanks to BBC2 and their wonderful production team for producing a beautiful series that has inspired both myself and the children.

If you’d like to incorporate pilgrimage into your RE lessons, we have a range of free resources available for both primary and secondary teachers. Explore lesson plans, classroom activities and teaching ideas to help bring the topic to life. Check them out here!