Religious Education

Intent (The ‘why’)

“Religion, it must be understood, is not faith, religion is the story of faith.” (Reza Aslan)

Rationale

The principle aim of religious education (RE) is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. The role is not to promote a religion or a particular set of beliefs. RE aims to give children a grounded understanding of Christianity and religious and non-religious world views.

As the children progress through school, they will enjoy a rich diet of RE. In KS1, the children will encounter Christians, Jews and Muslims, as well as non-religious world views. In KS2, pupils will revisit these areas but also learn about Hindus.

An important part of RE is encouraging children to reflect on their learning and make their own decisions about what they believe. It is not the role of RE to make children into religious believers, but to understand that religion and world views continue to influence and sustain many people in the world today. Also, to consider the wisdom of traditions within religious and non-religious worldviews and reflect on what they might take from these.

We provide a space for all children to express their home faith or worldview.

Aims

Our RE curriculum aims to:

• provide opportunities to learn about, and from, religion;
• contribute to the understanding of the spiritual dimension of life;
• encourage pupils to consider questions of meaning and purpose in life;
• address some of the major religions' responses to the spiritual dimension of life;
• promote respect for, and sensitivity to, people, their beliefs and values;
• contribute to personal development by promoting values and attitudes necessary for responsible citizenship in a pluralist society;
• contribute to the development of self-awareness and identity;
• contribute to the development of the key skills;
• develop skills in reasoning and in responding to religious, spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues;
• encourage pupils to reflect on their experience and think about life which is beyond experience.

Implementation

Curriculum organisation:

Our RE curriculum is structured to ensure full coverage of the Devon and Torbay Agreed Syllabus. The curriculum has been designed to ensure that knowledge and skills within the subject are taught progressively and revisited over time; this revisiting of knowledge and skills leads to deeper learning. All lessons have clear learning objectives which are shared and reviewed with the pupils.

Teachers use the Devon and Torbay Schemes of work when planning. The scheme includes a full study of Christianity - and each of the principal religions - as required by the Agreed Syllabus. All units require teachers to include opportunities for pupils to learn about religion and learn from religion. All units aim to make sense of belief, understand the impact and make connections.

Within our curriculum, there is a suitable balance between expecting pupils to express their own ideas through speaking and listening and to record what they have learned through writing, illustrations and diagrams.

During their time at the school, pupils should have the opportunity to visits places of interest and invite religious visitors to school. In this way, pupils have first-hand experiences of the religious traditions.

One Minute Guide

For further information on the RE curriculum, please contact our subject leader, 

Jennifer Redwood, on [email protected].