Religious Education

Intent

At Sudbourne Primary School, we aim to provide opportunities for pupils to develop positive attitudes and values and to reflect and relate their learning in RE to their own experience, as well as ensuring they leave Sudbourne Primary with a secure, informed core knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and practices of religions and world views. Our teaching of a variety of skills and content aims to intellectually challenge, enrich and support children to develop beliefs and values, and promotes the virtues of respect and empathy, which are important in our diverse society.

The SACRE syllabus provides opportunities to teach all religions practised within our school community including atheist and agnostic points of view. Pupils are also encouraged to handle artefacts, explore sacred texts and use imaginative play or drama to express feelings and ideas. During class time, teachers encourage their classes to think critically and raise fundamental questions about beliefs and values.

Children will adopt an enquiry- based approach beginning with their own life experience, explore challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs (religious or non-religious), self, issues of right and wrong, commitment and belonging. Through this exploration, they will develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, and religious traditions that examine these questions, fostering personal reflection and spiritual development.

Our curriculum meets the requirements of our locally agreed syllabus and is aligned to the non- statutory guidance which actively promote diversity, enabling pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which help them to flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society.

 

Implementation 

The RE Curriculum is based on our locally agreed syllabus and is aligned to the non- statutory guidance of the National Curriculum. The curriculum promotes learning through engaging units outlined by the SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) scheme of work and adapted by teachers to meet the needs of their class.

Curriculum planning is sequenced to provide a clear outline of progression in skills and knowledge to equip children for the next stage of their education. RE is taught in units of work, with one unit of work being taught each half term, ensuring pupils gain experience of knowledge and skills from a variety of contexts. Wherever possible, we involve the pupils in ‘real’ research with visits to places of worship.

Our journey throughout the school provides a wide variety of skills. This begins in EYFS where they are taught through cross curricular links which focuses on several themes, such as:

• celebrating special times,
• stories and what they tell us,
• identity
• relationships.

As pupils move up the school, they expand their learning through a systematic study of Christianity and the other 5 principle religions in the UK (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism).

Each unit of work will contain the following elements:

• Pre-assessment/glossary: To establish what the children already know and what they need to learn.
• Vocabulary building: Teaching of the vocabulary required for the unit.
• Knowledge learning: The learning of new knowledge through a range of teaching/learning techniques, such as independent research, reading, use of media such as video clips, paired and group work and visiting Places of Worship.
• Evaluation: Revisiting the pre-assessment/glossary and end of topic questions to reflect on learning and progress.

 

How successful is our R.E. curriculum

Outcomes in RE are assessed through end-of-unit ‘low stake quizzes.’ These are based on the two aspects of RE lessons (SACRE syllabus) - Learning about Religions and Learning from Religions and will assess what knowledge the children have learnt and retained from the unit of work.

Each quiz will be a combination of multiple choice questions as well as at least one ‘big question’ that requires a more detailed response.  These will be assessed by the teacher to both inform future ‘closing the gap’ sessions and to identify whether a child has met or exceeded the expected standard. Sticky knowledge points have been developed to outline the key knowledge we want children to know and remember by the end of each unit of work. Pupils' work will be used to assess whether this sticky knowledge has been learnt and retained. These assessments will be used to inform the teacher’s end of year summative assessment