Religious Education

Teaching and Learning

RE is taught once a week in school.  Subject knowledge is also backed up by extra days and afternoons of learning opportunities.  This has included Prayer-Space days and Multi-Faith Activity days.  Here, people from both the local community and from further afield are invited into school to share their experiences, knowledge and views of their religions.  The overriding aims of the teaching of RE are split into three areas.  Teaching aims to encourage children to be:

• informed - they know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews 

• expressive - to express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews

• enquiring and reflective - to gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews 

Additionally, RE plays a key role in the promotion of spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development across the school as well promoting British values specifically with regards to the mutual respect for, and tolerance of those with, different faiths and beliefs. 

Sequenced Learning

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. 

Pupils in EYFS will be taught to:

·       Talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members. 

·       Know that other people do not always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this. 

·       Know about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions. 

Key stage 1 Pupils will be taught to:

·       Recall and name different beliefs and practices in order to find out about the meanings behind them.

·       Retell and suggest meanings to some religious and moral stories, exploring and discussing sacred writings and sources of wisdom and recognising the communities from which they come.

·       Recognise some different symbols and actions which express a community’s way of life, appreciating some similarities between communities.

·       Ask and respond to questions about what communities do, and why, so that they can identify what difference belonging to a community might make.

·       Observe and recount different ways of expressing identity and belonging, responding sensitively for themselves.

·       Notice and respond sensitively to some similarities between different religions and worldviews.

·       Explore questions about belonging, meaning and truth so that they can express their own ideas and opinions.

·       Find out about and respond with ideas to examples of co-operation between people who are different.

·       Find out about questions of right and wrong and begin to express their ideas and opinions in response.

Key stage 2 Pupils should be taught to: 

·       Describe and make connections between different features of the religions and worldviews they study.

·       Describe and understand links between stories and other aspects of the communities they are investigating, responding thoughtfully to a range of sources of wisdom and to beliefs and teachings that arise from them in different communities.

·       Explore and describe a range of beliefs, symbols and actions so that they can understand different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.

·       Observe and understand varied examples of religions and worldviews so that they can explain, with reasons, their meanings and significance to individuals and communities.

·       Understand the challenges of commitment to a community of faith or belief, suggesting why belonging to a community may be valuable, both in the diverse communities being studied and in their own lives.

·       Observe and consider different dimensions of religion, so that they can explore and show understanding of similarities and differences between different religions and worldviews.

·       Discuss and present their own and others’ views on challenging questions about belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, applying ideas of their own thoughtfully in different forms.

·       Consider and apply ideas about ways in which diverse communities can live together for the well-being of all, responding thoughtfully to ideas about community, values and respect.

·       Discuss and apply their own and others’ ideas about ethical questions, including ideas about what is right and wrong and what is just and fair, and express their own ideas clearly in response.