Religious Education
We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to one human race.
- Kofi Annan
Intent
Religious Education (RE) is a foundation subject required by the National Curriculum and planned for by Local Authorities. At Manor Primary school, we believe that it is important for all our pupils to learn from and about religion, so that they can understand the diverse world around them. We facilitate opportunities for our children to develop their knowledge and understanding of the major world faiths, and address fundamental questions concerning life to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and behaviour for many people in our community and wider world.
Children are challenged to reflect on what it means to have a faith and to develop their own spiritual knowledge and understanding as they develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgments about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
RE is taught throughout the school in such a way as to reflect our overall aims, values, and philosophy. It plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE, in promoting social awareness and understanding in our children.
We encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their own beliefs, values and experiences. We include and promote British values, ensuring that children aware of their rights and responsibilities as UK citizens. Our curriculum is designed to encourage creatively, imagination, enquiry, debate, discussion and independence in order to crate a wider tolerance and understanding of all people.
What you will see in a Manor Primary School Religious Education (RE) Lesson:
- Lessons are designed to be relevant to the children, their life and the wider world with a view to secure religious knowledge, experience and exposure in an age-appropriate way, as a true reflection of the wider diverse society we live in.
- Teaching covers principal religions in a non-denominational approach as well as explorations into wider religious groups.
- Focus is placed on high-quality questioning to assess children’s prior knowledge, during and throughout a unit of work with children’s prior learning and growing understanding being revisited and reinforced using their class floor book.
- Lessons are creative, interactive, well-structured, engaging and stimulating.
- Teachers place an emphasis on correct and ambitious use of vocabulary.
- High-quality verbal feedback is provided throughout activities and sessions in line with the Year group overviews.
- It is expected that during RE lessons, an emphasis will be placed on active learning through planned discussions, artefact investigations, stories, role-playing/hot seating, group work and research.
- Lessons are sequenced which deepen understanding and are meaningful in their delivery and impact.
- Sensitive use of comparing and contrasting different worldviews with emphasis being placed on commonalities and careful and considered approach taken when highlighting similarities and differences.
- Opportunities for cross-curriculum links and enrichment activities (e.g, trips to places of worship).
- Achievement and Inclusion for all: All activities are planned, scaffolded and adapted where needed to ensure every child at Manor can engage with the learning. Adaptive teaching, including careful scaffolding, to be used when necessary, adult support and awareness of religious, emotional, wellbeing, physical and sensory needs.
- Adaptation of the Somerset SACRE scheme which has close links to Wirral SACRE.
Implementation
We will achieve this objective though focused, weekly timetabled, creative exploration and discussion based lessons. This is then enriched discreetly across the school day and in every aspect of school life including our planned collective worship assemblies delivered by local religious leaders, including our local vicar. This facilitates pupil's opportunities to understand and respect their personal spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, whilst gaining relevant learning experience to embrace, defend and navigate the religiously diverse society in which they live in. This programme is designed to sensitively meet the needs of our pupils.
We will develop children’s awareness of spiritual and moral issues arising in their lives, inform their understanding of religious traditions, and an appreciation of cultural differences in the UK today, enhance their investigative and research skills, in order to hold reasoned opinions on religious issues and nurture their respect for other people’s views to celebrate diversity in society.
We value the religious background of all members of the school community and celebrate opportunities where individuals share their own experiences with others to personalise and enhance teaching and learning at Manor Primary. All religious and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school and faith communities. We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils. We promote teaching in RE that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children. Religious festivals and stories are celebrated throughout the year during assemblies and visitors invited into school and we seek every opportunity to conduct school visits to our local church to celebrate major religious festivals.
Across all Key Stages, pupils will be supported with developing the following skills:
- Thinking about religion and belief
- Enquiring, investigating and interpreting
- Beliefs and teaching (what people believe)
- Practices and lifestyles (what people do)
- Expression and language (how people express themselves)
- Identity and experience (making sense of who we are)
- Meaning and purpose (making sense of life)
- Values and commitments (making sense of right and wrong)
Here is a Year group breakdown of religious focuses that we cover throughout our RE scheme:
- EYFS - Christianity, Festivals of world religions, wider themes of PSED & UW
- Year 1 - Christianity and Judaism
- Year 2 - Christianity and Judaism.
- Year 3 - Islam, Christianity, Sikhism
- Year 4 - Islam, Christianity, Religions and the Environment
- Year 5 - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Humanism
- Year 6 - Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Humanism
Impact
The impact of our RE whole school approach will foster:
- Pupils who will demonstrate a capacity to form spiritual, moral, social and cultural responses as young empowered citizens.
- Pupils who demonstrate an understanding of the religious and spiritual diversity around them with a high regard for celebrating acceptance, understanding and religious freedoms being able to be respectful and tolerant towards others who may live differently to themselves.
- Pupils who will demonstrate and apply the British Values of Democracy,
- Tolerance, Mutual Respect, Rule of Law and Liberty.
- Pupils who will demonstrate resilience and a positive mental attitude to their work.
- Pupils who can demonstrate their understanding and support their views with reasoning.
- Pupils who can maintain positive relationships with a diverse range of family and friendship groups who may have religious or spiritual differences.
- Pupils understand their protected characteristics at a developmentally appropriate level.
- Finally, pupils who, though high attendance and levels of progression, demonstrate an aspiration to achieve in line with national expectations as barriers are removed for children to become successful.
Measuring Impact
At Manor we celebrate the creative, expressive, nontangible elements of such a broad and all-encompassing subject therefore we will measure RE impact through:
- Monitoring of the curriculum and its successful delivery and implementation.
- Monitoring the adaptions to the curriculum which better reflect the needs and risks of our community in the context of our school location and general demographic.
- Monitoring and celebration of pupils work books and wider output forms.
- Monitoring and celebration of dynamic and creative class 'Evidence Floor Books' as an expression of pupil's engagement, achievement, thoughts and understanding of subjects, themes and topics explored.
- RE Subject Lead & School Leadership Team learning walks and 'book looks'.
- Pupil voice as an expression and celebration of intent, implementation and impact.
- End of unit and end of year assessment tasks.
- Data based ‘teacher judgments’ demonstrating cohort achievement and progression.
Our Curriculum
Revised Primary Schemes of Work Religious Education - KS1 and KS2
Documents