The RE Department at St John Bosco College, (SJBC) Battersea, told us about a very special visit they had last week.

Ruth Jampel from 'Judaism for School' visited SJBC on Wednesday to help our Year 11 students really get to grips with some parts of the GCSE syllabus on Judaism. It was fun and interactive from the start. We had model Torah scrolls, cuddly toy Torah scrolls, mezuzahs, kippahs, you name it, we had it! The students really enjoyed being able to handle Jewish items.

Ruth focused very much on the rites of passage in Judaism, which can be rather dry when following the GCSE syllabus, but she managed to bring it to life for our students as well as making links between the three Abrahamic faiths. You could have heard a pin drop when she chanted the Shema.

Ruth's personal stories of mourning rituals and circumcision really had our pupils thinking and there were many crossed legs in the hall when she told students that one of her relatives had offered to lend her their circumcision razor as a teaching aid.