Intent

Inclusivity: Within RE at Stallingborough C of E Primary School, we nurture our children to explore the beliefs and practices of Christianity, alongside the world's other major religions, in order to equip them as local and global citizens who flourish and have the knowledge and understanding to thrive within our diverse world. Within each lesson, every child is valued and celebrated and through the implementation of strategic planning, each child is supported to achieve their full potential. Exploration- Our progressive RE curriculum nurtures children’s intrinsic curiosity, utilising a wide-range of sources and stimulus. As children explore a diverse range of beliefs and practices, they are encouraged to develop their critical analysis and evaluation skills, to work collaboratively with others asking and answering increasingly deep questions in order to develop their knowledge and understanding. Empowerment: Within our RE lesson design, there are carefully planned opportunities for personal reflection which come to life in every lesson. During this time, children are empowered to ask and answer challenging questions as well as express their own ideas and insights in order to develop their own sense of identity and belonging. Values-led: Our guiding light of values is of great importance within our RE curriculum as the children’s understanding of values impacts greatly on how they articulate their understanding of and opinions on different worldviews. We have created a values-based culture within our school community, whereby the children are capable of showing compassion and empathy towards each other fostering caring and supportive relationships and above all show respect to all opinions and views.

 

Implement

Teachers plan from the agreed long-term planning ensuring all children have full exposure to carefully planned progressions of knowledge and skills within our religious education curriculum which follows the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus.  and our progression document which identifies key substantive knowledge and uses the disciplinary lenses of ‘believing, ‘living’ and ‘thinking’ to scaffold learning. These are underpinned by the Agreed Syllabus. R.E. is taught in weekly discrete lessons. Teachers adapt the planning to best support the progression of pupils in their class, consulting with the subject leader if there is any major variation. Opportunities to positively reinforce learning through global or national events are used, usually at the discretion of the class teacher. Lessons require pupils to develop their ability to analyse, evaluate and compare between their developing understanding and prior learning about other religious and non-religious worldviews. The religious education curriculum at our school includes progression documents for substantive and disciplinary knowledge, including the key golden threads that run throughout each year group.

Impact

To produce pupils who are religiously literate and able to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and belief. Good RE should:

• develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity as well as other principal religions and world views focus on concepts as well as content, within the context of enquiry-based learning

• explore authentic religious material, e.g. sacred texts

• reflect diversity in terms of the changing religious landscape of the UK (see 2011 census below) so that they are prepared for life in modern Britain

• engage and challenge pupils • reflect pupils’ own experiences and provide a safe space for discussion

• present religious’ belief as a real, lived phenomenon, not something exotic or belonging to the past

• take into account the increase in the number of people with non-religious beliefs and identities

• provide opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development

 • help to prepare pupils for adult life, enabling them to develop respect and sensitivity for others fostering caring and supportive relationships with people using Skills learnt in RE Pupils should develop key skills in RE in order to enhance learning and this should be evident across key stages:

1. Investigation and enquiry: asking relevant and increasingly deep questions; using a range of sources and evidence, including sacred texts; identifying and talking about key concepts.

2. Critical thinking and reflection: analysing information to form a judgement; reflecting on beliefs and practices, ultimate questions and experiences.

3. Empathy: considering the thoughts, feelings, experiences, attitudes, beliefs and values of others; seeing the world through the eyes of others.

4. Interpretation: interpreting religious language and the meaning of sacred texts; drawing meaning from, for example, artefacts and symbols.

 5. Analysis: distinguishing between opinion, belief and fact; distinguishing between the features of different religions.

6. Evaluation: enquiring into religious issues and drawing conclusions with reference to experience, reason, evidence, and dialogue.

Ultimately, we will sow the seeds so that ALL children will flourish.