The eight children in my class sit in a semicircle. This is no mean feat, since concentration is one of the many difficulties experienced by most of the pupils in this school for children with severe or multiple learning difficulties. Two of the pupils do not speak, and have been identified as being on the autistic continuum. Joe consents to sit down when shown the “sit” symbol but will be up and away unless I produce something worthy of his attention. Puppets and raisins are a good incentive.

I have planned to give the children a taste of what it’s like to be Muslim. We try to introduce the beliefs and celebrations of many religions to our school. Behaviour is a big issue in the class, where the six-year-olds find it hard to see beyond their own individual wants and needs, and take little notice of the other children.

As an introduction to the Five Pillars of Islam, we discuss rules that will make our class a happy place. I draw a yellow domed roof with a big smiley face on it - this is the roof of our class. We are happy as long as the roof stays up, so it is important for us all to help it to stay there. What makes our class a happy place? The children, with lots of help from classroom assistants and myself, come up with five rules: sit down when we’re talking;

don’t make too much noise;

don’t tear or spoil things;

don’t hurt anybody;

share things.

At least one or two of the children find some of these things very hard. I draw symbols for each rule on long pieces of paper, and these are stuck on to give the impression of holding up the roof. I demonstrate that if one is removed, the roof begins to fall and we will be sad.

Now comes practice and reinforcement. It’s important that each child experiences success. In turn, the children get up to “play”, returning to their seats when asked and getting a raisin as a reward. I want to show that, even when mistakes are made, we can put things right.

“Do something naughty,” I tell Peter, the liveliest and most likely to understand. For once he sits silently, as good as gold. The puppets come to my rescue. Peter is able to make Graham the rabbit get up, rush to the magnetic board and knock the names off. Lovely. We identify which rule has been broken, remove the “don’t spoil things” pillar from the picture and the roof begins to fall. What can we do? Graham is helped to say sorry and put the names back on the board. The pillar is restored, the roof righted and everyone is happy.

It is not an instant process. Even with the help of the puppets, the children don’t concentrate for long. We return to the theme for several weeks, practising each rule. We offer toys, how to ask politely, how to refuse politely if necessary. “Please may I have a go,” greeted by a toy thrust into waiting hands. All except Pippa who snatches it closer, shouting “No”. Seven out of eight isn’t bad.

After a few weeks, the parallel with Islam is drawn. We have already acted out Mohammed’s exodus from Mecca to Medina, building the first mosque on the land his camel chose. Now we have him giving his followers a set of rules to make them happy: Testifying to belief in one god.

Praying five times a day - we hear a recording of the call to prayer and a Muslim child brings his prayer mat and shows us the movements of prayer.

Alms giving - our sharing practice comes in useful here.

Fasting - we imagine being really hungry as we watch the clock take us to nightfall, when we eat together. A pretend sleep, to be woken for a meal before dawn.

Pilgrimage to Mecca - we act this out with excitement, packing for the journey and choosing our form of transport. Finally, the children dress in white and walk around a small table that has been draped in a black sheet. This represents the sacred black stone in the Great Mosque at Mecca, and the direction in which Muslims face when praying.

While I can’t be sure how much the children have understood of the religion itself, I hope we have managed to give them an idea of why rules are important in society.

Margaret Sahin teaches in Bardwell Special School in Oxfordshire