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Definitions of Spiritual Development

1. 'Spiritual Development is the development of the awareness that there is:
   Something more to life than meets the eye
   Something more than the material
   Something more than the obvious
   Something to wonder at
   Something to respond to'
   Professor Terence Copley, from Educating for Spiritual Growth (governor training video) produced by the College of St Mark and St John
   
   
2. 'Spirituality is about connecting with and living in this world with all its paradoxes and ambiguities, puzzles and mysteries.'
   Jill Fuller, Whose spirituality is it anyway? - towards a Christian model published in Church Schools Magazine by the National Society, 2001
   
   
3. 'Part of the spiritual journey is understanding the 'dark night of the soul', and standing alongside our pupils while they connect with the realization that bad things happen to good people must be part of our provision for their development.'
   Jill Fuller (ibid)
   
   
4. 'Spiritual education is the life-long process of putting together pieces from our experience and learning to form a jigsaw map of values and meaning. We use this emerging map to guide us on our journey of response to life's ultimate questions.' Michael Beesley
   
   
5. 'Without the opportunities to be inspired and grow in understanding of oneself, and a developing ability to understand others, personal and social development will remain stunted. Deprived of experiences of wonder, awe and mystery, children will lead dull, uninspired and spiritually impoverished lives.'
   Handbook for Inspection of Church of England Schools (Section 23)
   
   
6. 'Spirituality is like a bird: if you hold it too tightly, it chokes; if you hold it too loosely, it flies away.'
   Rabbi Hugo Gryn, quoted in Things of the Spirit, Westminster LEA 1993
   
   
7. 'Youngsters, especially, have little time or space, never mind quiet, in which to become aware of themselves, their feelings, reactions and needs. Anything which systematically helps them to do so is surely an important part of promoting their spiritual development.
   We need to give pupils opportunities to reflect, in increasing depth, on what they have seen, or read, or done; to analyse their reactions; to justify the meaning they give to a particular experience. To help pupils into the habit of this kind of reflection is, therefore, an essential part of spiritual development.'
   Bishop Vincent Nichols in an address entitled Spiritual and Moral Development and the Catholic School, 1993
   
   
8. 'Spiritual development is the growth of the spirit, understanding one's own strengths and weaknesses, self-respect, creativity, the will to achieve one's own full potential and the ability to ask, and try to find out answers to, life's major questions, including questions about the existence and nature of God, in order to foster inner-lives and non-material well-being throughout life.
   QCA Draft Guidance on the Promotion of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, 1997
   
   
9. 'Pupils' spiritual development involves the growth of their sense of self, their unique potential, their understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, and their will to achieve. As their curiosity about themselves and their place in the world increases, they try to answer for themselves some of life's fundamental questions. They develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, qualities and attitudes they need to foster their own inner lives and non-material well-being.'
   Curriculum 2000
   
   
10. 'Schools should provide pupils with knowledge and insights into values and beliefs, and enable them to reflect on their experiences and on life's fundamental questions in a way which develops their spiritual awareness and self-knowledge.'
    Ofsted Handbook for Inspecting Primary and Nursery Schools, 2000.