Pagan creation stories

Teacher notes

This lesson explores Mira's journey into adolescence and her Wiccan beliefs and practices. **The content is suitable for KS3/4 and above.** We visit an article from the Mother of the Forest storyworld in the Philippines. Other suggested creation stories to explore from a Pagan tradition are: European Paganism (Greece/Rome, Egypt, Norse, Mesopotamian), Indigenous American (Iroquois, Cherokee, Lakota), Central American (Olmec, Maya, Aztec), East Asian (Chinese, Japanese). **Lyfta core themes:** Community and Citizenship, Culture and Identity, Health and Wellbeing, Learning and Growth, Natural Environment. **Lyfta core skills and values**: Critical Thinking, Empathy & Understanding Others, Environment & Sustainability, Intercultural Competence, Mindfulness, Perspective-Taking. **SDGs:** 15. **National Curriculum objectives:** KS3 RE Your locally agreed RE curriculum is agreed by SACRE. The Curriculum Framework for Religious Education in England (2013) available at https://www.natre.org.uk/uploads/RE_Review_Summary.pdf aims to ensure that all pupils know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews. The themes of this lesson within this storyworld allow students to explore worldviews with which they may be less familiar. Additional support for teaching can be found here: * Beyond the Big Six Religions: Expanding the Boundaries in the Teaching of Religion and Worldviews (2019) James Holt * The NATRE website https://www.natre.org.uk * RE Online: https://www.reonline.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Beyond-the-big-6.pdf KS4 RE All exam boards reference the need to consider significant common and divergent views about your chosen religions’ practice when studying beliefs and teachings. Aims: From ‘A Curriculum Framework for Religious Education in England’ The Religious Education Council of England and Wales October 2013: https://www.natre.org.uk/uploads/RE_Review_Summary.pdf Students: - should be able to appreciate and appraise the beliefs and practices of different religions and worldviews with an increasing level of discernment based on interpretation, evaluation and analysis, developing and articulating well-reasoned positions; - use different disciplines and methods by which religions and worldviews are studied to analyse their influence on individuals and societies; - account for varied interpretations of commitment to religions and worldviews and for responses to profound questions about the expression of identity, diversity, meaning and value (p.25). - appreciate and appraise the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning (p.28) - describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals (p.11).