The RE team took a group of thirty year 7 students to Warrington in April to visit the Guru Nanak Gurdwara. The purpose of the visit was to supplement the work the students are doing in RE lessons on Sikhism (or Sikhi as believers prefer to call it).
We were met by volunteers from the gurdwara, who welcomed us with biscuits and juice, as part of the Sikh tradition of offering food to visitors.
We were then shown around the gurdwara and the students were able to ask questions about what it means to be a Sikh in the modern world.
We were shown how Sikhs show respect to the holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. It is treated like an important teacher, it is fanned to keep it cool, and it has its own room where it is placed every night. The students were able to see the holy book up close, and the granthi (the person who reads the book) read a portion of text to them in Punjabi, the language of Sikhism.
Mr Worthington said: “This trip was an invaluable opportunity for the students to see for themselves what a gurdwara is like and to imagine how it would feel to be part of a service in the gurdwara. Students were also able to hear Punjabi from a native speaker, something which we cannot replicate very easily in lessons!
“We regularly take key stage three students on visits to places of worship. It enables them to meet practising members of religious faiths and ask questions to deepen their learning. They experience cultures and religions that are sometimes very different from what they are used to.”
