What happens during a visit?

Each Place of Worship is a short walk away from the Open Centre. Each talk/visit usually lasts between 45 minutes and 1 hour, with plenty of opportunities to explore and ask questions on a range of topics. Most of these visits take place in the morning so we do not disrupt prayer schedules at the Places of Worship. If you would like an afternoon visit, please contact us to discuss the possibilities (Church and Sikh Gurdwara).

All visits are led by Open Centre staff, many of whom are also from a particular faith community. As our services are often in high demand, we cannot always guarantee a person from a particular faith community for each specific Place of Worship. However, we do have a range of staff members who are experienced and knowledgeable enough to lead visits to a variety of Places of Worship. All staff have been trained and are DBS checked.

Our recommended group sizes for visits to Places of Worship are between 25-45 children. We can cater for smaller groups (for example for Special Schools) or for larger groups up to 60 children. However this is dependent on the age of the children and would be discussed in detail, when booking. Working with groups of this size is recommended for two main reasons, one being health and safety and the other is to ensure a quality, differentiated talk where all pupils have the opportunity to take part. As part of talks children will have the opportunity to take part in a range of interactive activities in order to get to know the faith better or to gain a clearer understanding how the building is used.

However we do not take part in any acts of worship during our visits.

At many Places of Worship, especially the Sikh Gurdwara, the children will have the opportunity to try their traditional food for free. Please let our staff know if you have any children with any specific food allergies so we can advise you accordingly. The Open Centre holds no liability for allergic reactions when we have not been informed prior to the visit or if the severity of the allergy has not been made clear.

Can we extend the learning back at school?

Additional Resources

We also have a variety of carefully differentiated Activity Sheets based on our Faith Trails, that can help extend the children’s learning back in the classroom. These are currently only available as part of a Faith Trail visit and prices start from as little as £2.50. All activity sheets are related to the New Agreed Syllabuses and are factually accurate for each religion (Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism).

Here as a list of the Activities available:

• Early Years
• Year 1
• Year 2
• Years 3 and Years 4
• Years 5 and Years 6
• Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4

All are available with a teacher resource sheet. Please email our office on contact@derbyopencentre.org to add these to your visit.

For any additional information regarding Open Centre visits, please see the information for schools page or our FAQ page.