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The academy’s Interfaith Week celebrations took place on Monday 20th – Friday 24th 2017.  Interfaith Week is part of our year-round work celebrating the way in which students and staff respect similarities and difference across the academy and within our communities.

The week of activities aims to build positive interfaith relations and explores how people of different faiths and beliefs work together for the common good of our society.  Students participated in a range of fun and engaging activities, including group discussions, Mindfulness meditation drop in sessions and workshops involving mixed year groups.

On Tuesday 21st February, Sixth Form students welcomed Mehri Niknam MBE and Rabbi David from the Joseph Interfaith Foundation.  Students were treated to an enlightening and often quite humorous journey through the ins and outs of Judaism and Islam.  There was a poignant moment of reflection when grave comparisons were drawn between the mass genocides of Muslims in Srebrenica and European Jews in the Holocaust. The similarities of the two atrocities was used as a mechanism to compare the two religions of Judaism and Islam.  Students were captivated by the discussions and asked many questions to help gain a better understanding of the events that took place.

On the morning of Thursday 23rd February, Year 7, 8 and 9 students were taken off timetable to explore these interfaith themes in more detail. Students were in a series of mixed year group workshops studying the commonality between key religious parables and they also looked at case studies on how someone should respond to prejudice in familiar situations.  We were also lucky to be able to invite our guests from the Joseph Interfaith Foundation back to the academy again.  Rabbi David gave another humorous and moving insight into what it means to be a Jew and how his traditions compare with others from different faiths.

The week ended with a lunchtime celebration enabling students to speak about their experiences and to showcase some of their work; in addition to a prize giving event for the best symbols that students have made. The event was joyfully accompanied by biscuits and cakes inspired and created using a range of religious symbols – all produced by students from the Food Technology department.

“I was particularly impressed by the complete attention of the Sixth Form during the “Auschwitz and Srebrenica: Lessons of Our Common Humanity.

“Rabbi David genuinely enjoyed his three sessions at assembly, meeting almost 1000 students! He was so pleased to hear the students asking questions and showing interest in the subject.”

Mehri Niknam MBE, Executive Director, The Joseph Interfaith Foundation