At Victoria, we are continually looking for ways to develop our curriculum to enhance and enrich the learning experience for our students. As part of this quest, Citizenship Faculty Head, Hilary Stewart & PSHE Lead, Deanne Carr, have been looking for ways in which to develop students’ understanding of religious and spiritual matters. To this end, they have planned three Faith ‘drop down’ days, where the normal timetable is suspended for the day to allow all students to concentrate on one learning theme. This term, we have recently held the first of these three days, entitled ‘Lights of Faith’, during which students explored religious celebrations of light from three world faiths – the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, the Hindu festival of Diwali and the Christian celebration of Christmas. Every class had a range of differentiated activities to learn about these celebrations. There were discussions, craft activities, cooking, music and dance. In the afternoon, we were delighted to welcome special visitor, Lynda Ford-Home, from Living Judaism. Lynda (an ex-teacher herself) visited some classes to see what they were up to and was very impressed with both the engagement of students and the enthusiasm and dedication of staff. At the end of the day, all classes came together for a special assembly. We watched Lynda light her Hanukkiah, the nine branched candlestick used during the eight days of Hanukkah and joined her in a traditional song. The Students responded with great respect and enthusiasm. Huge thanks to Hilary and Deanne for planning these enriching sessions and to Lynda for giving freely of her time.