The Theatre of Learning is an approach to teaching RE which I developed, as head of RE at Bognor Regis Community College, West Sussex, along with Julie Woodward, a newly qualified teacher who worked with me in the specially adapted classroom we created. I introduced the method last year in the Humanities Curriculum Special (June 23, 2000). The article generated much interest and we have since taken up invitations to introduce the Theatre of Learning - which describes a method as much as a place - to schools around the country and abroad.

At Bognor Regis college we approach religious education directly, aiming to enable pupils to empathise with believers by taking part in activities and experiences that parallel those of a believer. Religion begins to make sense to them, no longer something that happens to other people different from themselves. The approach includes private reflective exercises that students do not have to share with the rest of the class.

But for group activities, we find a multisensory, experiential approach helps both primary pupils and secondary students focus on and grasp abstract concepts which they might not understand through explanation alone. It works because multisensory teaching creates a concrete platform for them to step on as they approach the abstract ideas of RE. Here is an example.

A class studying Hinduism, for example, begin their course by entering a darkened room filled with the sound of falling rain. A set represents water in all its forms - a floodlit pool, Christmas trees covered with snow and icicles, steam rising from a waterfall created from muslin. Music fades to a soothing background as the students encounter images of Hindu gods. These are what Hindus worship we say, but what many Hindus actually believe in is “the atman”. How can teachers help students make sense of such an abstract concept? That is where the water comes in. Water in all its forms represents the life-force and energy in all things. Students muse on how difficult it is to recognise the atman (defined in the Oxford Concise Dictionary as the real self, or supreme spiritual principle, in Hinduism) in themselves and the world around them. Following two well-known stories from the Hindu holy books, the Upanishads, they watch as salt is mixed with water and a fruit is cut open. You cannot see the salt or the life in the seed, but you know it is there. Such symbolic action stretches the most able. Their questions show how it stimulates them to think and probe. The least able can grasp such a lesson: literacy is not a problem for this kind of learning. Reading and writing are never the starting point.

Religion is something people feel and experience. Study is an important part of learning about religion, but it needs to come after the pupils have become engaged and enthused by the material, especially in an age of multimedia, where children spend hours on computer games. It is also important for us in a school where a significant number of pupils have special needs.

One teacher spent the summer holiday and pound;500 of her own money transforming her classroom into her own Theatre of Learning. She says: “It has transformed the children’s motivation and behaviour and their attitude to the subject - and mine too. I never used to want to talk about school when I got home but now I am so excited, I can’t stop.”

Our pupils agree. “If I learn from books I’ve forgotten it the next day unless I check it, but these lessons become a memory, a part of your life,” says Joe, now studying RE at AS-level.

Once you have the idea you can apply it to your own situation, make the RE room a special place where special things happen. An important thing is that they are the teacher’s own special things. It is not all plain sailing: children need to be taught how to work within the Theatre of Learning approach, for example to co-operate with forming a circle of participants in the room. They need to make ground rules for behaviour and listening skills. Crucially, they must not put each other down, and nor must the teacher. Trust allows growth.

Vicky, studying GCSE says: “You go into a normal lesson and you don’t know the names of some people, but here in the circle you catch someone’s eye, they smile, it’s like being part of a family.”

Fran, studying AS-level RE, says: “I’ve said things in these lessons that I haven’t told anyone else.”

Recruitment for the full RE course at GCSE at Bournemouth has soared. More than 70 pupils opted for RE after experiential learning was piloted with Year 9. Now 10 of the 39 pupils taking GCSE have opted for AS-level. This method is a joy to teach: pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties or really challenging behaviour participate in a calm and sensitive manner. Learning this way meets their emotional needs.

* Details of courses in experiential RE can be obtained by contacting the school at Westloats Lane, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO21 5LH.Tel: 01243 871010. Fax 01243 871011. E-mail: brcc@aol.com or Sue Phillips at njphillips@ supanet.com Sue Phillips is head of RE at Bognor RegisCommunity College, West Sussex