Participants of the summer school at the Albert Memorial

During the last week in July 2008, twenty-eight children from eight Ealing primary schools attended a summer school for pupils who are gifted and talented in religious education. The pupils, aged 9-11, were nominated by their school, and the event was sponsored by Ealing Council and MITIE Group, who generously provided accommodation in the new Acton High School.

The purpose of the four-day event was to present the pupils with a challenging set of activities. Topics covered included signs, symbols and metaphor, the human response to the challenges of life, an introduction to the Jain religion and the mythic role of snakes in a variety of traditions.

The game of snakes and ladders originated in India, and there are Hindu, Muslim and Jain versions of the game. The Jains called their version gyanbazi, which means ‘game of knowledge’, and playing was a way to learn the Jain code of ethics. When it first appeared in Britain, the game was also focussed on morals: the virtues, in the shape of ladders, allowed the players to reach heaven quickly, whereas the snakes represented vices for which the players were punished by having to move backwards.

The main task of the summer school challenged each participant to create a life-map based loosely on the snakes and ladders theme. However, instead of vignettes where misbehaviour leads to sliding down a snake, and ladders allow one to advance closer to heaven, these symbolic maps were meant to represent the reality of the ups and downs of an individual’s life without necessarily linking the experiences to moral shortcomings.