Hampshire SACRE*
Youth Voice
* Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education
Bringing young people and community faith leaders together to explore questions important to young people today.
Youth Voice is an event which aims to recognise the voice of students in facing the challenges in their communities and the wider world today through dialogue with religious and non-religious community leaders.
Year 9 students will represent the views of their school peers through taking part in a number of morning workshops exploring themes they have identified as ones that matter to their communities. The afternoon will be supported by SACRE members and other faith leaders in conversation with students about these issues. Students will have the chance to discuss and question faith leaders and these interviews will be recorded for the participating schools and beyond to use in religious education lessons.
Background
Hampshire SACRE is passionate about supporting high quality religious education in all of the Hampshire’s schools. The Locally Agreed Syllabus, Living Difference IV, says in its purpose statement that Hampshire RE “seeks to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of looking at, and existing in, the world may offer in leading one’s life, individually and collectively” and that RE should “play an educational part in the lives of children and young people as they come to speak, think and act in the world”.
SACRE is therefore keen to hear from young people themselves about what they value in the world, what they see as the crucial issues and questions facing us all today, and to allow them to have the chance to discuss these questions with members of SACRE and other community leaders.
Overview
Therefore, with the support of Westhill Endowment, Hampshire SACRE will hold a one day event bringing together young people from across Hampshire to represent their peers in discussions about their vision for the future. Initial work within schools will identify some themes that will be explored through a range of workshops in the morning. The afternoon will enable students to use what they have explored here to enter a dialogue with SACRE members and faith leaders. These sessions will be recorded to allow participating schools to continue working on exploring these questions and to enable schools not able to attend to benefit from the day.
Long-term outcomes
While the main event will occur on one day, the project aims to benefit SACRE and young people in Hampshire beyond this in the following ways:
Bringing young people and community faith leaders together to explore questions important to young people today.
Youth Voice is an event which aims to recognise the voice of students in facing the challenges in their communities and the wider world today through dialogue with religious and non-religious community leaders.
Year 9 students will represent the views of their school peers through taking part in a number of morning workshops exploring themes they have identified as ones that matter to their communities. The afternoon will be supported by SACRE members and other faith leaders in conversation with students about these issues. Students will have the chance to discuss and question faith leaders and these interviews will be recorded for the participating schools and beyond to use in religious education lessons.
Background
Hampshire SACRE is passionate about supporting high quality religious education in all of the Hampshire’s schools. The Locally Agreed Syllabus, Living Difference IV, says in its purpose statement that Hampshire RE “seeks to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of looking at, and existing in, the world may offer in leading one’s life, individually and collectively” and that RE should “play an educational part in the lives of children and young people as they come to speak, think and act in the world”.
SACRE is therefore keen to hear from young people themselves about what they value in the world, what they see as the crucial issues and questions facing us all today, and to allow them to have the chance to discuss these questions with members of SACRE and other community leaders.
Overview
Therefore, with the support of Westhill Endowment, Hampshire SACRE will hold a one day event bringing together young people from across Hampshire to represent their peers in discussions about their vision for the future. Initial work within schools will identify some themes that will be explored through a range of workshops in the morning. The afternoon will enable students to use what they have explored here to enter a dialogue with SACRE members and faith leaders. These sessions will be recorded to allow participating schools to continue working on exploring these questions and to enable schools not able to attend to benefit from the day.
Long-term outcomes
While the main event will occur on one day, the project aims to benefit SACRE and young people in Hampshire beyond this in the following ways:
- Work with participating schools prior to the event to establish key questions, themes and concerns in their local communities
- Recordings of interviews with faith and community leaders to continue to explore in participating schools RE lessons
- Uploading of recordings with additional teaching resources to the Hampshire RE Moodle page allowing free access for other schools to utilise these resources within their RE lessons
- Ongoing contact between SACRE members and other community leaders with participating schools
- Feeding in to the Locally Agreed Syllabus review beginning in Autumn 2025 through feedback on the day and ongoing contact between participating students and SACRE
