From The News

A Buddhist monk talked to children about peace and meditation at a school highly praised for its religious education.

Schools watchdog Ofsted said teaching of the subject was outstanding at Lee-on-the-Solent Junior School.

An inspector said the school took a highly innovative and challenging approach to religious education, concentrating on themes such as myth and ceremony and bringing in visitors like a monk from the Thekchen Buddhist Centre in Southampton or the local vicar from St Faith’s Church.

The inspector said the level of understanding among pupils about the way they learn was ‘unusually impressive’.

The school’s religious education co-ordinator, Kathy Bagley, said: ‘Visitors help with the ethos of the school – variety and diversity. It’s important for the children to seek answers to the big questions in life and they really enter into that.’