Reviews for FIVE JEWISH FESTIVALS

“Fishy Music always puts its heart and soul into its resources and ‘Five Jewish Festivals’ is no exception.

It offers five well-shaped five-minute Collective Worship sessions, thoughtfully planned, based on the theme of Jewish festivals. These would work particularly well with Foundation, KS1 and pupils within special schools in schools that have a Christian ethos and character.

This is a gift to teachers, who just need to put on the CD and see the pupils led through an accessible, interactive and spiritual act of collective worship.

Trevor Stevens’ song “Blessings on You All” is particularly catchy and sets the tone for the worship.

The festivals included are Pesach, Shavuot, Sukkot, Hanukkah and Shabbat. There is really only time to give a taste of each festival, interspersed with charming sound effects -the sound of a creaking door for a synagogue made me smile. However, a very useful and comprehensive ‘Festival Tips’ book supports follow-up work to extend the themes.

The prayers focus on what is of value to the pupils: friends, having a place to live, helping others and family. The Jewish priestly blessing, with gentle background sounds, is a very calming element of the CD.

One thought is that the word ‘Shalom’ could have been introduced more widely into the worship, instead of just into the Shabbat section. It’s such an important word for us all.

I can see Christian schools using this resource very happily, with many pupils benefittting from Fishy Music’s creative way of sharing the essence of the Jewish festivals within Collective Worship.

Anne Krisman

Anne Krisman leads RE in a special school in the London Borough of Redbridge.

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“I think the pace, timing and content of each CD track is ideal – it allows the teacher to settle the students and allows them time to respond. The lyrics of the song are simple, catchy and repetitive, which is easy for both young pupils and pupils with special needs to learn and sing along to. I like the idea that days are not named, allowing for a teacher to introduce any festival on any day. The booklet that accompanies each CD is very informative, giving correct pronunciation of each particular festival, music to accompany the lyrics, meaning of each festival, when it is celebrated. The booklet also contains useful websites for teachers to explore. I like the Bible references and the Glossary is very useful, giving definitions of the Jewish terms. This is especially useful to a non-specialist teacher of RE, particularly in primary schools.

I have also used in the past Five Little Fingers and Five Christmas Visitors, which were also very enjoyable to use and highly recommendable.

Dave Quinnell, SLD Teacher, Reading