Lesson video

Hello there.

My name is Mr. Robertson.

I really love RE.

I've got an amazing lesson for you today.

This lesson is in our topic where we're asking the big question, "Worldviews: how is our community and country changing?" And in this particular lesson, we're going to be looking at changing worldviews in your community.

And you're gonna have an opportunity to look around your local area and find out more about what is changing and what's stayed the same.

Really can't wait for you to get started.

So by the end of this lesson, you will be able to investigate how worldviews are changing in your community, and you're gonna create a report to show your results.

As always, we have some keywords, and the four keywords we have today are these.

Our first word is worldview.

Our second word, and I'd like you to say this back, is census.

Fantastic.

Our third word, converted.

Brilliant.

And finally, local.

So what do these words mean? Well, a worldview is the way people see, interpret, and inhabit the world.

The census is a national survey held every 10 years in the UK.

Converted in this lesson means something that has changed from one use to another.

And local is nearby or related to an area.

As we go through the lesson, you'll understand what these mean, and I know you're gonna be able to use them confidently by the end of the lesson.

So this lesson has got two main questions, and our first question is this: how are places of worship changing? This lesson uses some of the tools of social science, and Alex is gonna explain how we use social science in Religious education.

Alex says, "Social scientists are interested in how people live and how context like where they live or when they lived affects this.

We can better understand people's worldviews by looking at photographs or analysing data.

We can survey or interview people to find out more about their worldview." So what does that mean in this lesson? Well, in this lesson, we're going to investigate places of worship in the UK and how it's changed over time.

And we're going to report on that in our own local area, and we're gonna use photographs particularly to help us with this.

Let's start by doing some big thinking about this.

Izzy and Jacob are talking about change in their local area.

Izzy says, "I live in a village.

We've had a lot of new houses built on the edge of it, and there's going to be a new primary school as well." Jacob says, "That's interesting.

In my city, the primary school near me has closed as there are fewer families with young children.

But we have had a new train station being built nearby." So, we've got some changes going on in people's local areas; new houses and a school in Izzy's local area, and in Jacob, the school closing down, but a new train station.

Can you think of any changes in your local area? What's stayed the same, and what's new? You might want to think about that for yourself or talk to the person next to you about it.

How interesting to hear about your different local areas.

We're going to focus on a particular local area now.

Let's start by looking at this photograph.

I've got some questions for you.

What can you see? What is this building now? Are there any clues in that photograph? What might it have been before? Are there any clues? You might want to look at the shape of the building, what you might know about that sort of architecture.

And why might it have changed? Again, feel free to pause the video if you want to think about this.

Talk to anyone else around you.

Well, this building is in Bristol.

We're going to be particularly focusing on Bristol in the first part of this lesson.

And it's been converted into a theatre.

Previously, it was a place of worship.

You can see, can't you, the word theatre on the white doors.

And if you can really look carefully, you might see some plays that are going on in the sign.

Before that, it was a chapel for Methodist Christians.

And maybe you thought the building looked a little bit like a religious building.

You can see some stained glass windows above the lamp, can't you? This is Tia.

She has a Christian worldview and is a Methodist.

She says, "The chapel closed because there are fewer Methodists in the local area.

We couldn't use the chapel properly.

Now we meet in a different chapel.

I'm happy a new use has been found for the building." So that's interesting, isn't it? It used to be a chapel for Methodist Christians, and now it's closed down and become a theatre because there aren't as many Methodists in the local area as there used to be.

Let's just check our understanding so far.

Why did the Methodist chapel change use? A, it was no longer suitable for worship, B, there was a shortage of theatres, C, there were too few Methodists to keep it going.

Which one of those was it? Think about what Tia just told us.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's C, isn't it? Tia told us there were too few Methodists to keep the chapel going, and that's why it changed use.

Brilliant if you got that right.

Izzy and Jacob are discussing the story of the Methodist chapel in Bristol, "So in the Bristol local area, there are changes happening with places of worship.

I wonder why they're changing?" Jacob says, "That's a great question.

I wonder how we could find out? Would the census help us explain what's happening?" Hmm, what do you think? Can we remember what the census is? It's a survey that happens every 10 years.

Why might that help us understand things? And also, what might you predict? Again, please pause the video and think about that.

Well, here we have some information from the census.

We have a graph here, and it compares Bristol census data on worldviews in 2011 and 2021.

The light purple bars are the 2011 data, and the dark purple is 2021, which is the most recent data.

You can see all the worldviews down one side and then the percentage of people who said they belonged to that worldview as well.

I wonder what patterns you noticed.

Look at each worldview.

Look at the difference between 2011 and 2021.

Hmm, what's changed? What's stayed the same? Jacob says, "I've noticed there's a big increase in non-religious worldviews.

37% had no religion in 2011.

Now it's 51%.

That is over half!" So that's a really big increase, isn't it, in people with no religion in Bristol in 10 years.

I wonder what other worldviews have changed over time? Can you see any other worldviews which have changed? Izzy says, "I can see there's fewer Christians.

In 2011, 47% of people in Bristol had a Christian worldview.

Now only 32% do.

That is a decline of 15%." Let's check our understanding so far.

Let's look and see if we can learn something looking at a different worldview.

What has happened to the percentage of people with a Muslim worldview from 2011 to 2021? See if you can find the data for 2011, remember that's the light purple, and the dark purple is 2021.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, the data shows the percentage has increased from 5.

1% to 6.

7% of the Bristol population.

So there are now more people with a Muslim worldview in Bristol than there were in 2011.

Izzy and Jacob are discussing changing worldviews in the Bristol local area.

Izzy says, "There are fewer Christians in Bristol in 2021 than in 2011.

Does that mean there are more churches or chapels closing or being converted?" Hmm, what an interesting question, Izzy.

Jacob says, "What about places of worship for other worldviews? I wonder what's happening there? Perhaps we could look at some photographs to help find out more." What do you think? Do you think there's going to be more churches or less churches? Ooh, we've got another photograph here.

What can you see here? What is this building now? What might it have been before? Look very carefully at the photograph, including the zoomed bit.

Again, you might want to pause the video here and have a think.

What did you come up with? Well, this building used to be a church for Anglican Christians.

You might have spotted the church tower and some of the stained glass windows, mightn't you? Now it's been converted into a climbing centre.

You may have seen the photograph that said Undercover Rock, Bristol Climbing Centre.

I wonder why it might make a good climbing centre.

What is it about a church? Is it because it's got a really big tower and then you could put the climbing ropes and make a climbing wall up within it? Churches often have big spaces, don't they, which might make them really suitable for climbing in.

We've got another photograph for you here.

What can you see here? What is this building? What is it used for? And what clues do you have? Again, you might want to pause the video and have a think again.

I wonder what you came up with.

This is a church in Bristol.

The main building is from 1831, although there was an older church here.

It's still a church today.

We can see some of its charity work with the local community.

Look, you can see it says Holy Trinity Church, Horfield, and some of the things it does, having a warm welcome on Mondays and Fridays.

So this photograph shows that some places of worship continue to be used for their original purpose.

So some churches in Bristol have changed, they've become a theatre or a climbing centre, and other churches like this one are still churches.

So not every church in Bristol is closing down.

We've got another photograph here.

I want you to look carefully at this photograph.

What is this building now? Are there any clues? Do you think it was originally built for this use, or was it converted? In other words, has it changed the sort of building it is? And why do you think this? Look carefully at the building, at the design, at any labels you can see that will help you think.

Well, some interesting ideas.

This is called the Pattern Church, and it's in Swindon, which is a town close to Bristol.

It was not built as a church.

It was built in 1897 as a building to store designs for the railway nearby.

It was converted to a church in 2018.

And you can see the words Pattern Church, can't you, on it.

But actually, it didn't look like a traditional church, did it, with all of the windows.

So it's become a church, a new church in 2018.

This is Simon.

He has a Christian worldview.

Simon says, "I started going to the Pattern Church because it was close to the shopping centre.

I'd not been to church before, but I love the community and the music.

Christmas is a great time!" And you can see a photograph in there of the Pattern Church.

You can see it was an old building, can't you? But now it's been made into a church.

There's a stage, and people are celebrating Christmas.

A true or false statement for you now.

Churches and chapels are only closing in the Bristol local area.

Is that true or false? Think about some of the examples we looked at in some of the photographs.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's false, isn't it? That's not true.

And why? Because some churches and chapels in Bristol are being converted into other uses, but other churches are new churches, like the example of the Pattern Church that I showed you.

Brilliant if you got that right.

I've got another photograph for you now.

I wonder what you can see here in this photograph.

I wonder what you think this building is now, and I wonder what you think it might have been before.

Are there any clues? And why might it have changed? Well, this is a mosque in Bristol.

It was built originally as a school in 1855.

And some of it, you can see some bits of the old school building.

And in the background, you can see a church, which it would have been connected to.

It was converted to a mosque in 1983.

And the mosque was enlarged in 2017 with that beautiful new dome.

And you can see the label Easton Jamia Masjid, and masjid means mosque in Arabic.

So here we have a building which used to be a school and is now a mosque.

Look at that photograph of the beautiful inside showing the dome.

This is Jamila.

She has a Muslim worldview and lives in Bristol.

She says, "Our mosque was extended as the Muslim community is growing in Bristol.

The community saved up, so now we have a beautiful new dome and a proper space for women to pray." So here's an example of a new converted building with a different worldview for Muslims in Bristol.

Question for you now.

Jamila's mosque in Bristol, A, has always been a place for prayer, B, was changed from another use into a place of worship, C, is still used as a school.

Which is the right answer? I'd like you to pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's B, isn't it? Jamila's mosque was changed from another use into a place of worship.

Brilliant if you got that right.

Okay, I've got a task for you now.

Izzy says, "Religion is declining in Bristol, and so places of worship are being converted to another use." Is Izzy correct? I'd like you to think about what she's saying.

Religion is declining, which means it's getting smaller, and so places of worship are being converted to something different.

Can you use evidence from both the census, which we looked at, and the photographs to justify your argument? I've got some sentence starters for you here.

I think Izzy is.

Is she correct or incorrect? I think this because the census data for Bristol shows.

What does the census data show about religion in Bristol and how it's changing? The evidence from the photographs shows.

Can you think of some of those different buildings we looked at? Did all of them show that religion was declining and that they were closing, or did we see some other evidence as well? Use that evidence, please.

And in conclusion, I want you to sum up what you've learned so far and what you think about what we've seen about religion in Bristol.

Really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Pause the video, and off you go.

Wow, you've really thought about this, haven't you? So, you might have said: I think Izzy is not correct.

She's not right, is she? And why? You might have said: The census data for Bristol shows that although Christianity has declined from 47% to 32%, other religions like Islam have increased from 5% to 6.

7%.

So it's not that all religion is declining in Bristol, is it? Christianity has, but other religions have grown.

You might have said: The evidence from the photographs shows that some churches and chapels are closing.

For example, a church was converted to a climbing centre and a chapel to a theatre, if you remember those photographs.

On the other hand, a new church was converted from a railway building.

In addition, a mosque was converted from an old school.

One church is still a church.

In conclusion, I would say that some places of worship are being converted to other uses.

However, some new places of worship are being created.

So Izzy hadn't really understood that there's lots of things going on, isn't there? Some churches are closing, and other things are opening.

If you've managed to describe some of that and use the photographs as evidence, then brilliant, really impressed.

For the second part of this lesson, we're going to be asking this question: how can I write a report on my local area? Izzy and Jacob are continuing their investigation into local worldviews.

Izzy says, "I wonder how worldviews are changing in our local area? I wonder if places of worship are being converted?" Jacob says, "I wonder how we could find that information out?" How might you find out how worldviews are changing in your local area? What tools could you use to find this out? You might want to think a little bit about what we've been doing in the first part of this lesson.

Izzy says, "We could investigate how worldviews are changing using the census." Brilliant idea, just like we did for Bristol.

"That's a great idea," said Jacob.

"We could find data in our local area and see if there's a change from 2011 to 2021, just like we did for Bristol." Where could you find the census data for your local area? Well, if you go onto the website for the Office for National Statistics, you can find all the census information there, and you should be able to find your local census information.

How could you investigate how worldviews have changed in your local area? A, look at the census results for Bristol, B, look at the census results for England and Wales, C, look at the census results for your local area.

Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent.

It's C, isn't it? You need to look at the census results for your local area.

There's no point in looking at Bristol because that won't help, and for all England and Wales, that won't give you the information you need.

Brilliant if you got that right.

Izzy and Jacob want to investigate how places of worship have changed in their local area.

Izzy says, "It was interesting to see how places of worship have changed in Bristol.

I wonder if any have been converted or built in our local area." Jacob says, "How could we find out?" What methods could you use to gather information about how places of worship have changed in your local area? You might want to pause the video here.

What is your local area like? What could you do? You could survey your local area on foot to record places of worship.

I've put in some photographs from Bristol here, like the theatre or the church which is still a church.

Jacob says, "We could find some places of worship and draw or photograph them." So that is something you could do.

Could you go for a walk from your school around your local area and see if there are any places of worship and whether they've changed or whether they've stayed the same? You could analyse what's changing in your local area.

Jacob says, "We could find out when the places of worship were built.

We could find out if they are still being used as they were designed, being converted to another use, or being converted to a place of worship." Brilliant, Jacob.

Those three options would allow us to see what was going on in your local area.

Now I've got a true or false question for you here.

To look at changing worldviews in the local area, you need to record every building.

Is that true or false? Think about what we've just been talking about.

Excellent, it's false, isn't it? And why? Because we need to look at places of worship, but we don't need to record everything in the local area 'cause that's not really gonna tell us about worldviews.

Brilliant if you got that right.

So, this is the task that I would like you to do.

I'd like you to create a report to show how worldviews are changing your local area.

And there's two parts to this report.

In the first part of the report, I'd like you to answer this question: What does census data say about how worldviews are changing in your local area? So for that, you're going to need to find your local census information.

And ideally, you want to be able to compare the 2011 and 2021 data, just like I did for Bristol.

And you might like to use these sentence starters.

The census data for my local area shows that the majority worldview is.

What's the biggest worldview in your area? Some important changes since 2011 are.

Could you give two or three really big changes? The 2021 data is similar to the 2011 data because.

What's similar? What's stayed the same? The 2021 data is different to the 2011 data because.

What are some big changes that have happened? And it might be that there haven't been that many changes because every local area is different.

The second thing I'd like you to do is this.

What do photographs and research say about how places of worship are changing in your local area? So you might be able to go out into your local area as a group or on foot and take some photographs.

If you can't do that, that's okay as well.

Maybe you could use Google Maps or research to find out what your local area looks like and what places of worship there are.

Here's some ideas that might help you.

You might want to write down the method you used and think why it's reliable.

So maybe you went for a walk and drew something on a map, or maybe you used Google Maps.

I'd like you to list at least three places of worship you found, if you have three in your local area, including their names and any other interesting details like the type of building, its history.

I'd then like you to say, in conclusion, worldviews of my local area are changing because.

Are there some changes? Have there been some places of worship that have closed down or been converted to different uses? And then I'd like you to think, on the other hand, some things are staying the same in my local area because.

Maybe your church is still open as a church, and so that's something that's stayed the same.

Maybe you have some other religious communities and their buildings are still open as well.

So in your report, you're going to really think about what's changed and what's stayed the same.

If you have some photographs, that's brilliant, but if you haven't, don't worry.

Okay, there's a lot to get on with there.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do in your reports.

Off you go.

Wow, what a lot of amazing work you have done finding out about worldviews in your local area.

Now, my answers relate back to Bristol, but your answers are going to look very, very different to this.

But I just want you to have an idea of what the sentences might look like.

So you might have said: The census data for my local area shows the majority worldview is "no religion." Yours might be quite different.

Some important changes since 2011 are that "no religion" has become the majority worldview in Bristol.

In 2011, it was Christian.

The 2021 data is similar to the 2011 data because there are similar numbers of Jews and Sikhs in Bristol.

The 2021 data is different to the 2011 data because the percentage of Christians has declined from 47% to 32%, whilst "no religion" has increased from 37% to 51%.

This means over half the people in Bristol have no religion.

So hopefully you've been able to do something similar with the census data.

And you're gonna have different numbers and percentages, but hopefully you can talk a little bit about what's changed and what's stayed the same.

Thinking about photographs and research, you might have said: We went for a walk in our local area and photographed five buildings.

You might say: A local Methodist chapel has become a theatre.

The local church remains as a Christian place of worship.

A new mosque has been built.

You might have said: In conclusion, worldviews in my local area are changing because a new mosque shows the number of Muslims in the local area is increasing.

Muslims have increased from 5% to 6.

7% of Bristol's population.

On the other hand, some things are staying the same in my local area because the local church is open and serving its community.

47% of people in Bristol still describe themselves as Christian.

Now, you might live in an area where there have been lots of places of worship and you've managed to take photographs of lots of them.

You might live in an area maybe where there's only one or two, and that doesn't matter because it's about your local area.

Hopefully you've been able to explain what might be changing and what might be staying the same in your area.

I hope you're proud of your report, and I hope that makes you feel you understand your local area better and understand the different worldviews you find there and the different ways we can gather evidence to see if they're changing.

So let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned that the census provides data about worldviews at a national level.

It also provides data for local areas.

We've learned that we can compare local census data from 2021 with 2011 to see how worldviews are similar or different.

We've learned that places of worship show continuity and change.

Some places of worship have been converted to another use.

Some have stayed the same.

Other places of worship are new.

And finally, we've realised that we can use photographs to see how places of worship have changed over time.

I've really enjoyed this lesson.

I hope you have too, and I look forward to seeing you in another lesson soon, thank you.