Religious Education

Quality RE has the potential to have the most powerful and lasting effect on the child’s heart and mind.

It is a subject that combines academic rigour with the development of the character and spirit of the child. RE provides opportunities for spiritual development and personal reflection. On a quest to discover more about religion and world views, pupils will discover more about themselves. As RE develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the nature of religion and belief, it provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose, truth and values, identity and belonging.

RE prepares children for citizenship in today’s diverse society. It enables them to develop sensitivity to, and respect for others. Through authentic encounters with living faith communities, pupils will develop diversity dexterity and be equipped with the ability to hold an informed conversation about religious beliefs and practices.

Intent

The intent for the RE curriculum is to prepare pupils for success in later life. The ambition for what pupils will learn in RE is high for all learners – especially the most disadvantaged and those pupils with SEND. The curriculum is precisely considered and planned to enable pupils to achieve and articulate ambitious end points.

Pupils will experience, explore and encounter a wide range of creative and challenging multi-sensory activities that will help them to discover the answers to fundamental questions such as these:

• Who am I and what does it mean to be me?
• In what ways do/can I relate to others?
• How/where can I encounter God?
• How can I make a positive contribution to the world in which I live?
• What values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour are important to me?
• What does it mean to have faith?
• Who/what influences and inspires me?

Throughout the curriculum, pupils will learn about religion and learn from religion. Through the high quality planning, resourcing and delivery of RE, pupils will develop in their substantive knowledge. This is knowledge about religious and non-religious traditions. It includes the ways in which people express their beliefs, the artefacts and rituals associated with them. In addition, they will learn about key concepts (outlined below).

Pupils will also be taught ‘ways of knowing’. This is the disciplinary knowledge of RE. Pupils are taught how to understand how the substantive knowledge came to be, how to interpret the accuracy and validity of information and suitable methods used for enquiry.

Finally, the pupils will develop in their personal knowledge – the growing knowledge of how pupils’ own values and beliefs connect with religious and non-religious traditions.

Implementation

Schools within the Rainbow Education Multi-Academy Trust follow the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education’s RE syllabus – ‘Questful RE’.

Entitlement in RE and Time Allocation:

Pupils in Nursery are taught RE, and the units taught are mapped out in our long term plan.

Across the school, from Reception to Y6, pupils will have a discrete lesson of Religious Education per week. RE lessons will focus on Christianity – this being the majority religion taught.

In addition to this, religious traditions from world faiths will be explored in depth. Rather than a study of the whole religion, pupils will explore an element of it. Therefore, there can be more depth to the learning, providing  opportunities to look at diversity within religions, identifying similarities and differences between religious and non-religious practices.

Lesson content includes the following worlds faiths; Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Not all faiths are studied in each unit, however, during their time in primary school, pupils will have encountered all of the religions, as well as non-religious traditions.

In addition to the RE curriculum, pupils will have daily collective worship, regular visits to places of worship and visits from key people linked to faith and / or leadership.

Throughout the  RE curriculum, the following aspects are found within lessons:

Key Questions

Each unit has key questions throughout the learning process. The questions are designed to be thought provoking, challenging and philosophical. The questions enrich the children’s spiritual development. They are used to create conversations and to further encourage the children’s natural curiosity.

Key Vocabulary 

Each lesson will share and focus on the meaning of key vocabulary. Key vocabulary are the words that the children encounter, learn and use in their lessons and daily lives, supporting connections between concepts, knowledge, skills and prior learning.

Christian Concepts

Throughout the RE curriculum, pupils will be introduced to and given the opportunity to explore the big ideas of Christianity. These are eight core concepts at the heart of Christianity that together tell God’s big story.

 

World Faiths

In addition to this, in each unit, an area of a religious belief or practice is looked at in depth from a world faith. Rather than a study of the whole religion, pupils explore an element of it. Therefore, there can be more depth to the learning and opportunity to look at diversity within religions.

Lesson content includes the following worlds faiths; Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Not all faiths are studied each time. During their time in primary school pupils will have encountered all of the religions, some in more depth than others.

SMSC

The provision of the high quality RE curriculum enhances the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding (SMSC). Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development in a church school is distinctive because these four aspects of the school curriculum are inextricably rooted in the RE curriculum.

British Values

The RE curriculum actively promotes the British values of:

• democracy
• the rule of law
• individual liberty
• mutual respect
• tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

RE lessons offer a structured and safe space during curriculum time for reflection, discussion, dialogue and debate. The excellent teaching of RE enables pupils to learn to think for themselves about British values, supporting and preparing them for life  in modern Britain.

In addition to the RE curriculum, pupils will have daily collective worship, regular visits to places of worship and visits from key people linked to faith and / or leadership. Each class has its own reflection / RE area, which provides children with an age-appropriate area in which to further respond to their learning and / or spirituality.

Impact

The impact of the RE curriculum will be monitored and evaluated in specific ways by the RE subject leader, SLT and Trust senior leaders, as well as SIAMS inspectors and reports to local academy councils.

Examples of how standards and achievements will be monitored are as follows:

• children’s work from across the school with an indication of where it meets expectations
• photographs recording displays, artwork, visits and visitors;
• teachers’ plans showing evidence of quality, creative and challenging RE;
• records of scrutiny of work and lesson observations / learning walks
• plans and work from enrichment activities
• pupil voice

The purpose of the monitoring and evaluation of impact is to monitor standards and achievements and to ensure that all children are experiencing creative and challenging RE, enabling them to achieve ambitious end goals.