Religious Education

Through RE at Great Wishford, strong links are made with our school vision, No challenge too big, no child too small – for with God nothing shall be impossible. This is supported by our six values: creativity, friendship, respect, perseverance, service and truthfulness. We use our RE teaching and learning as a unique and crucial opportunity to further live our vision, and teach and instill our values in our young people. 

Intent

At Great Wishford Church of England Primary School, the aim of Religious Education is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. We aim to understand the way that religious beliefs shape our lives and our behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance our spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  We can organise our aims into three broad sections, as can be seen below.

Our aims of RE are that pupils will:

A Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and among individuals

• identify, investigate and respond to questions posed and responses offered by some of the sources of wisdom found in religions and worldviews

• appreciate and appraise the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.

B Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities

• express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues 

• appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion or a worldview.

C Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, responding creatively

• enquire into what enables different individuals and communities to live together respectfully for the wellbeing of all

• articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly in order to explain why they may be important in their own and other people’s lives.

Our principal aim of religious education 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.

It is our intent for the Religious Education curriculum to be equally ambitious for every child in order to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society.

Implementation

Religious Education is a statutory subject of the curriculum for all pupils in each year group and ‘should be provided for all registered pupils except those withdrawn at the request of their parents.’ We ensure that we comply with the legal requirements by following the NATRE-approved, RE Today Primary RE Curriculum with a syllabus designed and adapted specifically for the Acorn Education Trust. 

Timing

Religious Education is taught on a weekly basis. As a church school, we believe that RE is a core subject and is taught by the class teacher as it is important that the whole school community values it as such. The curriculum has been developed to ensure progression in knowledge, skills and vocabulary whilst also contributing to children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

At Great Wishford, we teach RE for at least an hour a week in all year groups. This is supplemented by additional opportunities for retrieval and reflection, including visits, experiences and links to Collective Worship.

Learning and teaching in RE

A wide range of imaginative teaching methods and pupil groupings should be used in effective RE sessions. Our agreed syllabus, sets out an underlying teaching and learning approach, whereby pupils encounter core concepts in religions and beliefs in a coherent way, developing their understanding and their ability to handle questions of religion and belief. 

The teaching and learning approach has three core elements, which are woven together to provide breadth and balance within teaching and learning about religions and beliefs, underpinning our aims of RE. Teaching and learning in the classroom will encompass all three elements, allowing for overlap between elements as suits the religion, concept and question being explored. 

These elements set the context for open exploration of religion and belief. They offer a structure through which pupils can encounter diverse religious traditions alongside non-religious worldviews – which reflect the backgrounds of many pupils in our schools. The elements present a broad and flexible strategy that allows for different traditions to be treated with integrity. These elements offer a route through each unit while also allowing for a range of questions reflecting different approaches, for example, from religious studies, philosophy, sociology, ethics and theology. 

Great Wishford recognises that ‘enquiry’ can be instrumental to good learning in RE, as referenced in recent Ofsted RE subject reports, and we aim to help pupils develop skills to enquire independently. Pupils are given time to generate pertinent questions where appropriate and teachers ensure that the atmosphere in an RE lesson is conducive to question raising and reflective thought whenever appropriate.

Children are also provided with experiences and enrichment opportunities including:
•    handling artefacts
•    exploring scared texts
•    using imaginative play or drama to express feelings and ideas
•    responding to images, games, stories, art, music and dance
•    making visits to religious places of worship where possible
•    taking part in whole school events- (multi-faith days, Harvest Festival, school performances)
•    participating in moments of quiet reflection
•    participating in Open the Book assemblies
•    using ICT to further explore religion and belief globally
•    comparing religions and worldviews through discussion
•    debating and communicating religious belief, worldviews and philosophical ideas and answering and asking ultimate questions posed by these.

Religions and worldviews

Great Wishford has followed the recommendations of the NATRE-approved, RE Today Primary RE Curriculum with a syllabus designed and adapted specifically for the Acorn Education Trust. 

This agreed syllabus requires that all pupils develop understanding of Christianity in each key stage. In addition, across the age range, pupils will develop understanding of the principal religions represented in the UK, in line with the law. Furthermore, children from families where non-religious worldviews are held are represented in almost all of our classrooms. These worldviews, including for example Humanism, will also be the focus for study in thematic units.

Planning and pupil recording

Great Wishford uses the NATRE-approved, RE Today Primary RE Curriculum to form the basis of its schemes of work. 

All aims of RE are planned for throughout the units of work.

If teachers feel the need to develop their subject knowledge in order to teach the units, they can do so in a number of ways. For example: the learning pathways and resources from the agreed syllabus, reading the information sheets created by the Subject Leader, discussion with the Subject Leader and personal research. 

Inclusion

Our whole school inclusion, English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) policies apply to RE. 

Our RE curriculum is successfully adapted, designed and developed for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities by the teacher as necessary. It is a curriculum that is broad, balanced and inclusive for all pupils. Teachers are aware that pupils who have barriers to learning in other areas may have a strong interest in and aptitude for RE. All pupils should be encouraged to progress to their full potential and a variety of teaching methods (e.g. use of art, drama, ICT) should be employed to ensure that this is possible.

Pupils who are Gifted and Talented in RE are given opportunities to demonstrate and develop their strengths.

There are no presumptions made as to the religious backgrounds, and beliefs and values of the children and the staff. Some pupils have positive and deep experiences of religion from their lives outside of school. While there is no doubt that these experiences should be valued, they do not necessarily relate to pupils’ ability in RE. We value the religious background of all members of the school community and hope that this will encourage individuals to share their own experiences with others freely. All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school, and a faith community.

Impact

The children at Great Wishford Church of England Primary School enjoy learning about other religions and why people choose, or choose not, to follow a religion. Through their R.E. learning, the children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world.

We plan for pupils to make progress across all aims of RE by following our progressive syllabus. The built-in progression in knowledge, skills and vocabulary, ensures that we can fulfil our aims and that children make the expected progress throughout their time at our school.

Each enquiry is assessed using an end of unit assessment task, from our agreed syllabus, to identify the knowledge, skills and vocabulary that they can remember and, of course, their ability and confidence to answer the key enquiry question.

This evidence is then used to assist the teacher in reaching a best-fit ‘level’ (below, meeting or above age-related expectations). Teacher assessments are an overall judgement based not only on written responses to the focus question, but also observations on how children contribute in class, the confidence and willingness with which they answer questions and share their own ideas, their use of appropriate vocabulary and their recall of appropriate links from previous learning.

Children receive feedback on their learning, to support them to make improvements. As required by law, we report pupils’ attainment in RE in written form to parents once a year.

Staff update an assessment overview termly so that Subject Leader can assess the effectiveness of learning experiences provided. The Subject Leader also conducts pupil interviews, learning walks and book looks. This enables an informed discussion and review of the subject within the school. This helps the children by enabling the Subject Leader to make informed decisions about necessary changes to any aspect of the planning, implementation and assessment of RE within the school and to update the Action Plan.