What is a Church?

Challenge your Year 6 children to think about Christian places of worship and whether a church is a building, its people or both. As well as doing this, pupils will think about how churches support members of their own community and reach out to help others. Each of the six religious buildings KS2 lessons includes a detailed plan with a choice of differentiated activities, slides and a range of printable resources.

Updated version now available with improved slides, plans and activities! Please note: This series of lessons was previously named 'What can we learn from Christian religious buildings?'

A Knowledge Organiser is included within the complete series download, or can be purchased separately.

The Foundation

Look at religious buildings including some unusual, adapted and temporary spaces used as churches, then consider why these might be used rather than purpose-built spaces. Following on, learn about the foundation of the Christian church by the Apostles according to the Bible, then think about whether a church is a building, its people or both.

View Lesson 1

Local Culture

Study and discuss images of some very different churches, congregations and acts of Christian worship around the world. Why are these Christian places of worship so different? What do they have in common? Go on to explore these questions in greater detail during either of the two included activities. Children will also continue to explore the idea that a church is both a building and its people.

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Focussing for Worship

How do Christians feel when they are in a church? How are churches designed to help Christians worship? In this lesson, children will identify features of churches, their purpose and the effects they have on worshippers. They will also consider reasons why Christians and non-religious people have special places to think, pray, meditate or relax.

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Serving Communities

What does the Bible teach Christians about their responsibilities in communities? In this lesson, children will read and interpret excerpts from the Bible, sharing their own views. Following on, they will consider ways in which their own school or local churches serve their local community.

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Global Communities

Find out about some of the ways in which Christian places of worship around the world are linked, as well as briefly exploring the history of the Christian church and some of its denominations. In either of the two included activities, children will continue to explore the idea of local communities doing work to help others globally.

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What have we learned?

Look back at the work done in previous lessons in this Complete Series of KS2 R.E. lessons, then challenge children to discuss, synthesise and summaries the ideas of their group in either of the two challenging activities included.

View Lesson 6

This Year 6 RE Knowledge Organiser has been created to complement the study of the Christianity strand within our RE and worldviews resource offer. It is designed to support your children's understanding of key vocabulary and big ideas covered in this scheme of work, while signposting prior learning. Children are also encouraged to reflect on 'Ways of Knowing' about religion and worldviews, and to think deeply about the topic through the 'Thinking Questions' provided.

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