The “Invisible Backpack” I Carry into SRE Every Week

Every week, there are things I carry into my year 4 scripture class without fail: My bible, my pen, my visual aids, my teacher’s manual, and my stickers for good workers.

But there’s something else I carry with me, something that I use even more than almost all of there (apart from the Bible). I call it my “invisible backpack”.

My invisible backpack is the metaphor I use when training SRE teachers to describe the tips and tricks, phrases and analogies that SRE teachers use over and over again.

When I began SRE teaching in 2004, my backpack was empty. As a 19 year old in my first classroom, I had no experience and nothing to draw on. As time has gone by, I have added, little-by-little to my backpack so that I have a few go-to responses for different scenarios.

These aren’t pat rote-memorised answers. It’s more like what Charles Duhigg describes as “mental models”. Duhigg uses the example of airline pilots when their plane hits distress. The reason that no matter how experienced they are, pilots need to clock hours in the flight simulator is so that they can drill these models into their muscle memory so that when it happens in reality, their muscles, mind, and even nervous system knows exactly what to do.

We’re not flying planes in SRE, but there are times when students put you on the spot and ask questions that get your heart pumping because you’re not quite sure how to answer it.

I’m going to share some of the contents of my “backpack” with you, so that maybe you can add them to yours.

Scenario 1: A student asks, “How do you know the Bible is true?”

I love to say,

“40 different authors over 1,500 years wrote this book and it makes sense! More than that – it tells one story of how God has sent Jesus to be the saviour of the world. I can’t see how it’s not true!”

Sometimes I even have them think about if we all took turns writing a story one sentence at a time without looking at the sentence beforehand – would the story make sense? So how amazing is it that the Bible is one united story!

Scenario 2: A student asks, “Is my dog that died on the weekend going to heaven?”

I would sit with what we do know about heaven rather than speculate on what the Bible doesn’t reveal.

“There are lots of things we don’t know about what heaven would be like because our language just doesn’t have the words to express it – that’s how great it will be. But there are things we do know – in heaven there will be no more sickness, sadness, crying or pain. The Bible says God will be so close to us he can wipe every tear from our eyes. How amazing is that?”

Scenario 3: A student asks a question about a controversial issue or an issue listed in the Youthworks Sensitive Issues Framework.

I re-direct back to the lesson.

“Thank you for your question. Our lesson is about Abraham today and your question would take a whole lesson or more to answer it.”

I would then go back to the student one-on-one in book work time and suggest other times to answer a question – such as if they were to visit their local Church or Youth Group.

Scenario 4: A student asks a question which is off-topic from the class or may take the class down a rabbit-hole. For example, in a lesson on John the Baptist they ask,

“What is baptism and do I have to be baptised in order to be friends with God?”

While it’s amazing that this student is so keen and applying the lesson to their own life, you are teaching a group of up to 30 students sometimes. When I’ve observe teachers taking a question like this, one by one, all of the other students in the room switch off.

Instead, I’d say,

“Can I answer that one for you in bookwork time?”.

This ensures that the keen student has their question answered but the rest of the class is doing something productive at the same time.

Scenario 5: A student is playing with their mobile phone in class (this tends to happen a LOT in High School).

Taking a mobile phone from a student is hard! Instead, I propose a directed choice – that is, two options for the student that I’m happy for either to be accepted.

“You can put your phone in your bag or on my desk.”

If the phone appears again, I would add a third option, “You can put your phone in your bag, on my desk, or you can walk it up and put it on the Deputy’s desk.”

Scenario 6: A student is refusing to do their work.

I give the student the benefit of the doubt at first,

“I notice you haven’t started. What part can I help you with?”.

I then leave them with the direction that I’ll come back and check on their progress. Usually that is enough. If they still haven’t started their work, that’s when giving them a second chance with a further escalation of consequences is helpful. An “If you choose” / “then…” construction is helpful because it puts the onus on the consequences of the student’s choice.

In Primary School I’d say: “If you choose not to do your work, then I will talk to your teacher after class”

Or in High School, I’d say: “If you choose not to do your work, then I will speak to the Year Advisor/Head Teacher (appropriate school staff member).”

In either case, while we want to do everything we can to help students engage well with the lesson, we can keep in mind that DoE staff are the ones responsible for behaviour management and duty of care.

These are just some of the items in my invisible backpack. What’s in yours?