The Open Centre has a long standing history of speaking passionately about our different faith communities, something that many schools/organisations wish to share in.

We can therefore provide DBS-checked speakers on a wide variety of topics for lessons, talks/assemblies, debates or panel sessions. For example:

• Islam
• Judaism
• Hinduism
• Sikhism
• Christianity

Each faith talk will consist of an expert guest speaker, who will have an in depth knowledge of that faith and can often share a personal perspective of what it is like to be a part of that faith – “bringing information to life”. Discussions can be tailored to a particular topic or aspect of that faith to meet the audiences requirements. Often if we are ask to deliver assemblies or faith talks in schools, to multiple aged audiences, we may ask for the groups to be split in order for us to deliver a talk which is age appropriate and subject specific for each group. We simply don’t like ‘ticking a box’ and want to ensure listeners gain as much from talks as possible in the time we have available.

For KS3 + age groups, we may be able to provide more than one speaker from the same faith to demonstrate the diversity within a religious tradition. If this is something you are interested in, please don’t hesitate to contact Sam, our manager on, manager@derbyopencentre.org.

Talks will usually last between 30 minutes to an hour which will include a section for question and answers. Some topics may include artefacts for the audience to look at more closely. We also tend to use a powerpoint to share images and key vocabulary with our audiences but we do not read from them, they are there to enhance talks not replace a talk.

If you are a school and would like this as an act of collective worship/assembly – please notify us during the booking process so we can add in a opportunity for reflection at the end.

Feedback for Talks