“Like the bee gathering honey from different flowers, the wise person accepts the essence of the different scriptures, and sees only the good in all religions.” Gandhi
Introduction
At Evenwood C of E Primary School, children are taught to understand and respect the importance of religious beliefs in the world around them. We encourage children to use and develop their skills in RE and to participate in critical thinking. We aim to ensure that the RE curriculum is challenging, dynamic and relevant to pupils of all ages giving them a better understanding of the world that they live in.
Intent
At Evenwood C of E Primary School, the aim of Religious Education is to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other principal religions represented in the local community, Great Britain and throughout the world. The RE curriculum is taught in accordance to the Durham Agreed Syllabus. We provide a wide range of opportunities for learners to understand and to make links between the beliefs, practices and value systems of the range of faiths and world views studied. We recognise that children in our context are not exposed to different faiths on a regular basis, and we feel it is our duty to open pupils’ eyes and minds to our diverse world and to develop the fundamental British Values of tolerance and mutual respect for all.
Religious Education and a ‘Christian Ethos’ is embedded throughout the school curriculum and everyday life at Evenwood C of E Primary School with the focus upon seven main Christian values: koinonia, thankfulness, trust, forgiveness, endurance, justice and service.
The aims of RE include:
- To know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text.
- To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied.
- To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
- To recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence of Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places.
- To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.
Cultural Capital
As aforementioned, at Evenwood C of E Primary School we value the purpose in learning and the opportunity to develop a broad and rich awareness of the world around us. We recognise the importance and the strength of RE as a subject in order to do this. Here is an example of how our RE teaching contributes to the development of our learner’s Cultural Capital
Implementation
Our RE curriculum design is based on principles derived from evidence through cognitive science:
- Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.
- Retrieval of previously learnt content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.
In addition to the principles, we also understand that learning is invisible in the short term and that sustained mastery takes time.
At Evenwood C of E Primary School, we teach according to the Durham Agreed Syllabus which sets out a continuous and progressive outline for the development of Religious Education across the school. Pupils build religious literacy by developing knowledge and understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews. Our pupils become increasingly able to respond to religious and non-religious worldviews in an informed and insightful way, providing them with opportunities to reflect on their own ideas and the ideas of others.
In the Durham Agreed Syllabus these are called the three elements of Religious Education and cover the aims of Religious Education:
- Knowledge and Understanding
- Critical Thinking
- Personal Reflection
Lessons are taught using an enquiry- based approach and that poses theological, phenomenological, philosophical, ethical and sociological questions to produce a challenging and balanced RE curriculum. R.E lessons are timetabled once a week. To coincide with Religious Festivals, some units of work are taught in blocks.
Throughout the primary key stages, pupils have opportunities to develop a range of skills. Some skills are more appropriate to knowledge and understanding (e.g. investigation), critical thinking (e.g. evaluation) or personal reflection (e.g. empathy) but all are necessary for good balanced RE learning and progress. The essential skills taught in RE are:
- Investigation and Enquiry
- Interpretation
- Application
- Expression
- Analysis
- Evaluation
- Reflection and Response
- Empathy
We recognise that all children in our school have differing learning styles so RE is taught in an engaging and exciting manner meeting the needs of all children. Learning activities provide fully for the needs of all pupils, so that they develop a wide range of skills. They provide opportunities to engage in meaningful and informed dialogue with those of all religions and worldviews. RE lessons provide a safe space to explore their own religious, spiritual and/or philosophical ways of seeing, living and thinking, believing and belonging.
Teaching of RE is done so weekly and is taught consistently throughout the school first period on a Monday morning to promote RE links through the rest of the curriculum. Visits to local places of worship of different faiths are encouraged so that the children can develop greater understanding of other faiths and cultures. Speakers are also welcomed into our school as a further source of information as appropriate to the development of the RE curriculum.
Children in Early Years Foundation Stage will be introduced to aspects of religions through topics about Belonging and Special, including times of celebration and special objects, people and books. These topics will use examples from Christianity and other religions, as appropriate.
Children in Key Stage 1 will learn about:
- Christianity – introduction to beliefs and practices and their impact.
- Buddhism – introduction to beliefs and practices and their impact.
- Religious diversity – introduction to the diverse religious and non-religious landscape in the local area
In Key Stage 2, children will learn about:
- Christianity – beliefs and practices across the denominations and the impact of these for individual communities.
- Hinduism – some beliefs and practices and the impact of these for individuals and communities
- Judaism – some beliefs and practices and the impact of these for individuals and communities
- Religious Diversity – the diverse religious and non-religious landscape across the region, including a special study of a local Muslim community
- Similarities and differences within and between religious and non-religious worldviews through at least one thematic study e.g. about ritual, the environment, care for others.
At the end of Key stage 2, children are taught a ‘bridging unit’ to ensure continuity and progression of learning in Christianity as they enter Key Stage 3.
Our RE Learning
This academic year, we have focused on implementing the new Durham Agreed Syllabus. This LTP maps out the progression of units, whilst identifying focused vocabulary and suggested texts . Please click on any of the link below to see our ‘RE Learning Journey’:
RE Long Term Plan
Spirituality Long Term Plan
Impact
The intended impact of our curriculum is that children build semantic and procedural knowledge. Children will have a wider understanding of the world’s religions, particularly Christianity, and be able to compare and contrast them. Children will have an enriched experience of local and world wide people and places of various religions. They will have developed their own views on world issues. They will be able to speak confidently and they will feel comfortable and confident when debating their own opinions when discussing religion with others.
Useful Websites
Additionally, we recognise technology as a vital tool to support teaching, practise and therefore the learning of key RE principles. Here are the websites our staff use to support their planning.
