You can download a flyer for the toolbox by clicking here
The Spirituality Toolbox is an initiative of Scripture Union Tasmania and has been developed in consultation with the Principal Education Officer Health and Wellbeing and jointly funded by the VOS Foundation. In the Tasmanian school curriculum five dimensions of health and wellbeing are identified: physical, social, emotional, mental and spiritual health. These five dimensions of health overlap and interconnect; general wellbeing is dependent on continual growth and development in all five dimensions.
Spiritual health is often overlooked in the development of school-based health and wellbeing programs. The Spirituality Toolbox seeks to provide a resource that will enable classroom teachers to address spiritual health using educationally sound, student-centred, inquiry based approaches that are strongly linked to the Tasmanian Curriculum. It is hoped that the Spirituality toolbox will support teachers and school chaplains in teaching spiritual health in the classroom as part of a conscious contribution to the development of the whole child.
The Tasmanian Curriculum is based on a set of core values and purposes, one of which is connectedness. Fisher’s (1998) model for spiritual health proposes four domains: self, others, environment and something/someone beyond the human level. These domains have been used to focus on the value of connectedness and to underpin the content of the Spirituality Toolbox.
Contents of the Spirituality Toolbox include:
- Information cards highlighting connections to the Tasmanian Curriculum at all grade levels (from kinder to grade 10) and including sample learning opportunities and indicators of learning
- PD for teachers exploring the topic of spirituality and its place in the classroom
- CONNECT – Lessons for each grade developing the four domains of connectedness to self, others, environment and beyond
- Strength cards to use with CONNECT as well as at other times in the classroom or with small groups
The Spirituality Toolbox will be trialled in some Tasmanian state schools in 2010. The aim is to make it available to every state school in 2011.
Thanks to the VOS Foundation for their partnership in this project!
