Subject Leader: June Lowther

Intent

RE at Selside Endowed CE Primary School is rich, varied and inspiring, with the teaching of Christianity and the person of Jesus Christ at the heart. We are an inclusive community, placing high value on the need to learn about other religions and world views as well as the need to foster respect for all.

Our strong RE curriculum is highly influential in the spiritual, moral, cultural, social and emotional development of pupils, making a significant contribution in preparing pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. It strengthens our understanding of Christian values; empowering pupils make positive choices.

Children will learn to respect different faiths and customs and diverse communities can live together. To develop an awareness understanding of self and ability to build meaningful friendships. Children will develop their understanding about how religious beliefs can inspire, develop courage and influence the lives of themselves and others. To develop their own spirituality and personal reflection and thankfulness for the world all around them.

Implementation

Teaching our core syllabus ‘Questful RE’ (developed by Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education), we aim to equip our children with the skills and knowledge to hold their own, informed conversations about faith and religion. Through this syllabus, we ensure the opportunity to develop a wide range of higher-level skills such as enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection, thus deepening children’s understanding of the impact of religion on the world and enabling them to express personal views with consideration and confidence. We supplement Questful RE with Understanding Christianity, a resource developed by the Church of England Education Office. The key purpose of the Understanding Christianity project is to help all teachers support pupils in developing their own thinking and their understanding of Christianity, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. Units in Questful RE are paired with units from Understanding Christianity (see curriculum overviews below) to ensure our children receive a deep, rich RE education.

All classes have weekly RE lessons which constitutes an hour of curriculum time and we have daily collective worship (CW) where the whole school comes together. Our RE and CW aims to dedicate 10% of our curriculum time. We also provide wider opportunities for RE beyond the classroom include visits to church, visitors to school, themed days and visits to places of religious interest. 80% of RE curriculum time is dedicated to learning about Christianity and a minimum of 20% to other faiths.

We believe it essential that children develop an understanding of, and respect for, all world religions and faiths, enabling them to develop a deeper understanding of the world and their own experience within it.  Many units in Questful RE begin with an exploration of an aspect of Christianity before moving on to look at similar aspect of a different faith. As an example, when children in Year 1 learn about the Christian festival of Harvest, they also explore the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

Implementation

RE Long Term Plans Year A

RE Long Term Plans Year B

RE Policy

Enrichment and Culture Capital

RE enables children be informed, enquiring and reflective about religions and worldviews, beliefs and values. Together with other areas of the curriculum, RE contributes towards our children’s moral and social development, encouraging responsible caring attitude and to help form personal opinions and judgements about right and wrong. RE allows are pupils to build on their creativity as they respond to and reflect upon their learning, express their own ideas, natural curiosity and asking BIG, challenging questions. Children will develop, through a variety of experiences and activities:

• RE lessons/days,
• Value days,
• Links with St Thomas Church,
• Links with other CE schools,
• Festivals; Harvest, Christmas, Easter
• Archbishop of York Award,
• Collective worship (assemblies)
• Charity fundraising,
• Everyone Together Afternoons,
• Extra-curricular clubs, sports clubs,
• Outdoor education and residentials,
• Visits and visitors

Impact

We want our Pupils to have:

• An outstanding level of religious understanding and knowledge.
• A thorough engagement with a range of ultimate questions about the meaning and significance of existence.
• The ability to ask significant and highly reflective questions about religion and demonstrate an excellent understanding of issues related to the nature, truth and value of religion.
• A strong understanding of how the beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion cohere together.
• Exceptional independence; the ability to think for themselves and take the initiative in, for example, asking questions, carrying out investigations, evaluating ideas and working constructively with others.
• Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity, which are shown in their responses to their learning in RE.
• The ability to link the study of religion and belief to personal reflections on meaning and purpose.
• A wide knowledge and deep understanding across a wide range of religions and beliefs.