Bringing beliefs to life with diverse media at Chailey School
Chailey School, East Sussex
At Chailey School, an 11–16 secondary comprehensive nestled in the Sussex countryside, students are engaging with religion and ethics in vivid new ways using ERA’s media resources. For the past two years, Sam—lead teacher for Beliefs and Ethics (RE)—has been using ERA to enrich lessons with diverse voices, sacred spaces, and lived experiences that go far beyond the textbook.
“I teach RE across Key Stage 3 and 4,” Sam explains. “Before ERA, I was constantly trawling through YouTube or trying to find something on the BBC—only to realise the video had disappeared, or that I couldn’t access it anymore. It was all quite random and time-consuming.”
Making global experiences accessible
One of the biggest challenges Sam faced wasn’t just sourcing reliable content—but helping students connect with experiences they’d rarely encounter in everyday life.
“You can read about practices in a book, and we can explain them, but nothing beats actually seeing people in action,” she says. “We’d love to take students on more trips, or bring in speakers, but that’s not always possible—especially during COVID. Plus, you can’t take students to a Mosque without a lot of paperwork and organising a big trip, so, it helps to address that experience element. ERA gives every student that chance to see and hear from real people, to experience something new in an accessible way.”
Engagement through story and sight
From sacred spaces to prison documentaries, Sam has seen a marked increase in student curiosity and engagement since introducing more video-based learning.
“They love a good video. It gives real context and sparks questions—often about the small things, like something they saw in the background. They start asking questions like what did they mean by that? Or can you explain…? It just brings the learning to life in a way a textbook or me droning on can’t. And it’s much more memorable.”
With only one lesson a week for Key Stage 3, efficiency matters. ERA makes it easy to quickly introduce new concepts and reinforce key knowledge through impactful clips that students remember.
The Power of discoverability
A key benefit for Sam has been how searchable and intuitive the ERA platform is.
“I didn’t even know Around the World in 80 Faiths existed until I stumbled on it while browsing. That’s really good for implementing more diversity into practice. You can search for clips by religion, topic or just have a scroll—it’s amazing what you find that you didn’t even know to look for. That’s not something YouTube can do.”
“The students love Sacred Wonders. That was taken off of the BBC and we weren’t able to use it anymore. So, it was nice to find that on ERA. Also, there’s the programmes Are We Tough Enough On Crime? , Prison Dads – they love a good prison documentary. God on Trial as well, like the little clips that are of that genre, they’re just the right bits of them. So that’s really good at getting the students engaged.”
ERA’s bookmarking function has become a vital tool for planning ahead and making sure strong resources aren’t lost in the shuffle. “I’ll be looking for something, find a brilliant clip—like one on the Kaaba—and think, ‘That’s exactly what I’ve just spent six lessons explaining!’ It’s perfect for revision too. It’s easy to refer back and helps reinforce learning ahead of assessments.”
Outcomes and Impact
Sam has noticed a difference in her students’ understanding and ability to connect concepts across topics. “They’re asking better questions, remembering more, and I can easily refer back to clips we’ve watched together. It gives them something to hook onto. And for me, it’s cut down the prep time massively because I can find, save and reuse quality clips really easily.”