Religious Education

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Nelson Mandela

Religious education promotes pupils’ understanding of the multicultural and multifaith society we live in today, enabling the exploration of issues, beliefs and differences between faiths. Having learned about different faiths and beliefs, pupils are then encouraged to understand how people interact with each other and explore interfaith issues of contemporary society. Whether they have a faith or not, pupils need to be given an awareness of what life is like from a religious point of view. Knowledge and understanding of the features, ideas and practices of the focused religions in each key stage is important so that pupils are able to distinguish between the religions and understand what religion entails. There is a need to appreciate the values and attitudes which individuals in a group hold true and the effects these have on the community. Schools have a duty to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural education of pupils and, although it is important that the school ethos and all subjects contribute towards this; the teaching of religious education has a large part to play.

 

We have identified 4 substantive concepts for Religious education:

Intent 

We believe the teaching of RE is vital to developing life-long learners who are proud of their own beliefs and respectful of those of others. 

 

What will it look like in EYFS, KS1 and KS2? 

The early learning goals at EYFS aim to strengthen the positive impressions children have of their own cultures and faiths, and those of others in their community, by sharing and celebrating a range of practices and special events.

Throughout KS1 and KS2 children learn about the main world religions in blocks spread out across all year groups. This allows for units of work to build on previous learning and offers children the opportunity to revisit prior learning.

Should parents or carers wish to discuss the RE curriculum in more detail, or withdraw their child from any RE lessons, they must arrange a meeting with the Head of Academy and make a formal request in writing following the meeting. 

Implementation: 

Teachers will make use of knowledge organisers to share key vocabulary for every half term’s unit, which will enable children to understand the exact knowledge/vocabulary that needs to be learnt by the end of the half term to give them a better understanding of each religion. RE is timetabled for an hour each week and taught each half term in 6-week blocks. Learning is evidenced in RE books and outcomes will take a variety of forms each week. 

Impact 

Pupils record their learning in a variety of ways, recorded within their RE books.  Evidence of the learning is dependent on the lesson outcome; year group and the knowledge and skills being developed.  The use of retrieval practice strategies built into the learning will help teachers identify how much knowledge has been learnt in a unit. Subject leaders will conduct learning walks, book looks and pupil interviews to measure the impact of our teaching, based on how much children can remember.

HF Curriculum Lead - Miss S French

HPAK Religious Education Lead - Mrs M Barnett and Miss M Sherif