In 2006 BBC Newsround produced a series of incredible films, The Wrong Trainers, about young people living in poverty in the UK. Using the voices of real young people, the films use animation and carton characters to tell their stories visually. The result is something the Aardman’s Creature Comforts. There are five main stories, all of them involving young people talking about their experience. The animations enable the films to deal with very strong and disturbing stories without making an audience of young people too emotionally upset.

An assembly adapted from Oxfam’s award-winning role-play resource for ages 13+. Using the life of 25 year-old sweatshop worker Mara from Cambodia, students learn about:

the labour behind branded trainers and sportswear
factory conditions and workers’ rights
the causes and consequences of the use of cheap labour in poorer countries
action pupils can take in the UK

The assembly lasts around 15 minutes and has a teachers’ script and a PowerPoint slideshow. It can stand alone, or could be used to introduce topic work around globalisation.

A very funnily executed animation of The Good Samaritan using lego. The unusual approach makes an often told story seem fresh and it would work well as a way of presenting it to a class of secondary pupils, especially those who are already familiar with it. 

‘Chasing God’ is a video resource from Teachers TV aimed at secondary RE. The hook is that it’s narrated by the comedian Dawn French. The intro on the Teachers TV site says:
“Narrated by award-winning comedian Dawn French, this programme tackles the eternal question of why so many humans believe in a higher power. Humanity is being threatened, especially by war, and in times of extreme upheaval, many people seek solace in a higher power. Could they be wrong? And if they’re right, who is this higher power? Chasing God takes us on an enlightening journey to: the Vatican and the Ganges; the Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock Mosque; and the Golden Temple and the Dalai Lama Temple in the Himalayas.”

Scenes from the Bible have been imagined by countless artists over the centuries, but never quite like this. God’s Eye View portrays four key Biblical events as if captured by Google Earth.

It’s the work of Sydney-based “creative collective” The Glue Society. The project was commissioned by Eric Romano of Pulse Art, New York for its Miami art fair. Romano had seen the group’s Hot with a Chance of a Late Storm installation, a comment on global warming in which a melting ice cream van oozed across the promenade and onto the sand at Tamarama in Australia last year as part of Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea event, and commisssioned them to create this new work.

Youth Specialties is an American company, originally started by Mike Yaconelli, providing resources and conferences for youth workers. They have a page on their web site of free downloadable resources which includes a video showing the genealogical line between Adam and jesus according to the Biblical narrative. The video is short but very well produced and could be useful as part of an RE lesson looking at the person of Jesus.

Chalkface is a company producing (paid for) resources for teaching which include RE, Citizenship and PHSE. The units are generally quite expensive - around £25 - but for that you a get 60 pages of resources including lesson plans and worksheets. They can be downloaded as a pdf or bought as a spiral bound workbook.

Complete Hero is a multimedia project looking at issues of peace and war. Their website says:

“Hero is an attempt to re-evaluate what we mean when we use the word ‘hero’.... Hero asks questions like why are our heroes usually male, white and violent.”

One of the most powerful elements of the project is a short film showing the blog entry of an American soldier serving in Iraq talking about violence and peace. Set to music and some simple moving images, the soldier talks about the futility of violence and the need to lay down weapons.

There are lots of sites on the web where you can design and print your own cards or stickers, but none comes close to ’Moo‘ for ease of use and quality of the finished product. Once you’ve uploaded your own photos (either directly or from Flickr), you design the loom at feel of the card or sticker and, hey presto, your results arrive through the post a few days later.

Moo postcards have great potential to be used as a classroom resource for schoolsworkers. You get 20 laminated postcards for £9.99 which is pretty reasonable given the quality and the fact that they’re laminated with a hard-wearing gloss.

This exercise would work well in a lesson as an introduction to the subject of prejudice or simply the concept of similarities and differences. First give one lemon to each child. Then ask the children to “get to know your lemon.” Children will examine their lemons: smell them, touch them, throw them in the air, and roll them around. After a few minutes, collect the lemons in a big basket, and ask the children to find their lemons in the pile. Remarkably, most children will recognize their lemons at once. Some will even get protective of them.

Next, ask the children to describe how they recognized their lemons. “My lemon was big,” one might say. “My lemon had a mark on one side.” And another, “My lemon had dents and bruises.” Then talk about how people, too, come in different sizes, different shapes, different shades of color, different “dents and bruises.”