Spiritualism in Schools?

SPIRITUALISTS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO RAISE AWARENESS OF UK’S EIGHTH LARGEST RELIGION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

- Centenary of WW1 brings Spiritualist’s positioning into spotlight
- Religion is particularly relevant to younger demographic

The Spiritualist National Union (SNU) is this month embarking on a major awareness drive to highlight the relevance of the UK’s eighth-largest religion to young people, and empower RE teachers across the UK’s secondary schools to explore faiths outside of the major religions with their pupils.

One of the key beliefs of Spiritualism is bringing peace through the power of thought, deeds and actions, meaning this year’s centenary of WW1 is especially relevant to the religion. The teaching support pack will be distributed to schools across the UK in time with this poignant anniversary.

A dedicated online information resource including lesson plans, information and activities is also being launched on the SNU’s website [Only admins are allowed to see this link] in coming weeks.

As it stands, all state-funded schools are required to teach religious education, but with the number of trainee RE teachers on a steady decline, head teachers and RE teaching staff are under increasing pressure to fulfil their duties.

And while the country’s biggest religions are largely well understood by teachers, it is those outside of this that are often forgotten, despite their relevance to many hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

As the eighth largest religion in the UK, Spiritualism is experiencing a period of significant growth with 340 Spiritualist churches around the UK and an estimated 100,000 people attending services each week. In fact, the last census results showed a 79%* increase in people across England declaring themselves as spiritualists. The principles and beliefs of Spiritualism including, equality, security and peace, resonate with many young adults and the religion is seeing an influx of younger members joining their congregations.

Julia Almond, Finance Director at the SNU and retired Director of Children and Young People, comments: “The centenary of WW1 this year really brings the values of Spiritualism into the spotlight, and 2014 presents a unique opportunity for teachers to focus on a religion outside of the major ones, highlighting its values of peace, brotherhood and personal responsibility.

“I am a retired secondary school head teacher and at the SNU we are fully aware of the resource and time pressures put on teachers, especially for subjects such as RE which is often under-funded and under-staffed. With this in mind our awareness drive is aimed at supporting teaching staff across the UK by providing free resources, information and activities to help them – not to create more work.”

There is growing interest in teaching about Spiritualism in schools.

Spiritualism is a religion for the 21st century and its supporters are growing in number. There are 350 SNU Churches and centres affiliated to the Spiritualists National Union.

The Spiritualists National Union has developed a number of resources to assist teachers in devising activities about Spiritualism.

All these resources were developed by teachers and curriculum advisers and are freely available to use on line.

It is planned to add to the range of materials available over time.

We are keen to encourage any feedback on these materials and welcome any new suggested additions to the resources available.

Please send any comments to: [Only admins are allowed to see this link]


The book “This is Spiritualism” has been sent free to every secondary school in England, Scotland and Wales as part of an introductory pack about Spiritualism. It contains information and learning activities appropriate for Key Stage 3 including:

How Modern Spiritualism started The beliefs of Spiritualists How Spiritualists worship Spiritualism and Peace

The pack which was sent to schools also includes the book “Philosophy of Spiritualism” which is appropriate for GCSE and ‘A’ level use.

A range of high quality leaflets and information about different aspects of Spiritualism is also included. The press release about the Spiritualist view of the First World War centenary is also part of the pack.

Further copies of the hard copy version of the book “This is Spiritualism” are available from the SNU Head Office for £3 including P&P. (£2.50 if collected)

The full resource pack is available for £10 including P&P. (£8.00 if collected)

mac wrote:It would be great if something positive came from this initiative.

Candlelight.kk wrote:

mac wrote:It would be great if something positive came from this initiative.

I'm not too enthusiastic about the idea of teaching Spiritualism as an included school curriculum subject, certainly not as a 'religion' - "eighth largest" or not! Have it made available to those who may be interested in learning about it at their leisure, yes - and Maurice Barbanell's book "This is Spiritualism" (which is part of the 'pack' that has already been provided around the schools) is an appropriate choice for that purpose - but I really think it would be a far more sensible and acceptable idea to perhaps (initially, at least) have that book and possibly the rest of the "pack's" contents made available in the school's library, for example - to be perused in the students' own time and not part of an obligatory subject of study.

Including 'Spiritualism' on the curriculum as an actual subject to be taught, I think, provokes a myriad of formalities, questions and preparations which would need to be looked into in much greater detail before taking it to that stage - and that's just in regard to the question of who would be doing the actual teaching(?); what qualifications would be required(?) and what form would this teaching take(?) .... etc, etc.

mac wrote:
The introduction by the SNU says: "As it stands, all state-funded schools are required to teach religious education, but with the number of trainee RE teachers on a steady decline, head teachers and RE teaching staff are under increasing pressure to fulfil their duties." Isn't it against that requirement that the SNU education pack was developed? If so, why can Modern Spiritualism not be delivered by a teacher in a similar way to how they deliver education about other religions?