The Religious Education Committee had an extremely active year. A lot of hard work and effort has gone into a multitude of projects to enhance the quality of our education programs. The committee members have been exceptional at digging in and rolling up their sleeves to complete our projects. Numerous projects have been created and initiated to provide improve our services and to enhance the continuity of the programs.

In addition, the children of First Day School (FDS) have had many wonderful opportunities this year. The creation of cards, nativity play, Christmas tree decorations, involvement in the Fall Festival the FDS breakfast, the Valentines Day project, Easter egg hunt and service projects are only a few of the highlights.

A total of 78 students participated in our First Day School (FDS) Program this year. Twenty-seven individuals volunteered to teach our classes, providing needed support. The support and linking that the adult involvement provides is key to the success of our program. Many of the teachers even created some of their own material to supplement the class material. Several of the teachers committed themselves to teaching the entire year. All of the teachers support is so greatly appreciated and valued. We hope that the work that the Religious Education Committee (REC) has been doing to enhance our program will inspire even more members/attenders to volunteer to teach and that it will make it easy and enjoyable for them.

The First Day School Breakfast occurred on October 28, 2007. We had a good turn out and the food was delicious. The REC members did a great job with the entire event. Plus, we raised $56 for the Lord’s Pantry. We also completed a "How to Do the Breakfast" summary for future reference.

We instituted a service project, in which the children earned money for chores, to raise money for a fourth-grade class in the Philadelphia School District taught by one of our members. The children raised $160, which she targeted for new books for her classroom.

In June we thanked all those who taught, assisted and substituted in the FDS program. As a token of our appreciation, we gave handmade wish bracelets to all of the teachers. During the Ice Cream Social, we presented journals to the six graduating seniors. We encouraged all members and attenders, young and old, to contribute a note of well wishes, advice or congratulations.

One of our members again coordinated the greeting card project with the FDS children. As always she did a wonderful job. She raised a total of $460 through this project. We greatly appreciate her efforts. The intergenerational Valentines project took place on January, 27,2008. The kids made around 100 cards, and we sent them to identified meeting folks. Everyone had fun, and the receivers of the cards thanked many of the makers.

One of our member families graciously donated their property yet another year for the annual Easter egg hunt. The Young Friends filled the eggs and the Middle Schoolers hid the eggs. The children had a wonderful time. However, next year we need greater adult supervision before and during the event to ensure smooth sailing.

One of the teachers of our Young Friends has begun to explore service trip options with the Young Friends (YF). No locations have been identified as of yet. They’re hoping to do the trip in the summer of 2009. She’s working on identifying NGO’s, who are currently working in locations of interest, that help to organize this type of project. Adults will be needed for the trip, and she’s hoping for a 2:1, student/adult ratio. REC contributes $1,800 each year towards the trip. Fund raisers, grants and families pick up the rest of the cost. The Young Friends last traveled to Costa Rica.

The REC members provided childcare coverage during Business Meeting for this year. For the upcoming year, we’d like to open this up to other volunteers, so we don’t have this burden every month. We’re establishing guidelines so the adults watching the children have parameters within which to work. We prefer to have two adults watching the children. We provide a light snack and water for the children.

Members of the REC met with the Young Friends to discuss their likes and dislikes of the YF’s program and informed us of how they feel about their program, what keeps them involved and what they think the curriculum should entail. The group has a very strong commitment to the program. We’d like them to "own" the program and forge its direction. The leadership of the  Young Friends teachers has fostered a cohesive environment where the students feel safe to be who they are and express what they feel. The kinship is very strong, and it makes this group very special. It’s our hope that the Young Friends will begin to provide leadership/mentoring to the younger children in Meeting to continue to create strong bonds to the Young Friends program ensuring future involvement. The YF’s will continue to dictate the direction of their group. Why fix what isn’t broken? We’re also encouraging the YF’s to spearhead and coordinate a service project with the FDS and are hopeful that they’ll accept this challenge. The Young Friend’s had a car wash and bake sale to raise money for a foreign exchange student who needs funds to support his education and his living expenses and raised $540 for him. What an outstanding job!

Major projects that the committee has embarked upon have included the following:

Creating guidelines for Religious Education.
Reviewing all of the previously developed religious education curriculum.
The development of a new curriculum.
Instituting the Child Safety Policy and a parental permission for the use of photographs for all of Meeting’s children.
The creation of curriculum goals and objectives for each class. 
Creation of a feedback/evaluation form.
The development of a lesson plan form.
Initiating Godly Play.
The development of a teacher manual and an orientation for teachers.
One of the most significant areas we’ve been addressing is the curriculum. We have reviewed the entire pre-existing curriculum and cataloged it. Now we’ve reshaped into a 2-3 year plan for the FDS classes from pre-k through middle school. The current layout for each year of classes is as follows:

    Fall                     Winter                    Spring

Quakerism            Self & Others                Bible

Each year the material will vary and the material will be cumulative. We’ve identified all of the pre-existing material for all of the grades and put it into this format and will create new material as needed. We still have much to do to finalize the curriculum for FDS. All of the members or the REC are working on the development of the lesson plans for each grade and subject. We hope to have the entire curriculum developed by the close of this FDS year.

In addition, we’ve established Guidelines for Religious Education to provide insight to the teachers on what Quakers believe and to help guide them in the classroom. We shared this document with Meeting and met the glowing approval of Business Meeting in July.

The Godly Play training occurred on March 8, 2008. Ten participants attended the day-long training session. The presenters were excellent and provided a very sound base for the group to proceed with the implementation of Godly Play, planned for five times a year. It will always happen on the first day of the term, as new teacher orientation will happen at that time as well. These Godly Play sessions will correspond with the category being taught for each term. In addition there will be a Nativity and an Easter related Godly Play session. Our ten trained participants will do the Godly Play presentations.

We’re also organizing the Child Abuse/Criminal History clearances as required by Meeting’s Child Safety Policy. We’re collecting clearances on all teachers and substitutes. The policy states that only those who have been in attendance and known to Meeting for a minimum of six months may teach classes. Only once they’ve gone through a screening process, which includes the above clearances, may they teach our children. We’re reviewing and implementing the Child Safety Policy with current teachers in the new orientation.

Parental permission is now necessary for any photos used in any form of media with pictures that contain Meeting’s children. Parents are now completing releases for the use of these photographs which will be kept on file indicating parental approval or denial. We have had some parents who prefer that their children’s photos not be used.

We’ve developed critical understandings and assessments for each class. Goals have been established and a form developed that teachers will complete at the end of the term. These forms will provide feedback from the teachers and will assist the REC to determine if they have met the criteria and if changes need to be made.

The REC has created teacher manuals for each classroom. They’re used for teacher orientations which occur for all new teachers at the beginning of each term. We’ll be keeping a copy of the manual, containing the following documents, in each classroom:

Mission Statement
Teacher Notes
FDS Calendar
Attendance Sheets
New Family Welcome Letters
Child Safety Policy
FDS Roster/census
Photo Release Form
Teacher Guidelines
Critical Understandings and Assessments
End of Term Feedback/ Evaluation Form

We’re blessed to have such wonderful and enthusiastic children and adult volunteers in the First Day School program. They make it the thriving program that it is today. Our committee is also very grateful to the larger Meeting body for all of the support that it has given us throughout the years.

Download our First Day School Guidelines for Teachers.

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