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Religious Education

Curriculum Overview - click here

Intent

 At Billesdon C.E. Primary School we believe that it is essential that our children, appreciate and develop knowledge and understanding of their own and others’ beliefs, values, traditions and cultures. We encourage them to ask big questions about the world, to reflect on and develop their own beliefs, values, and experiences to help them to develop a clear understanding of the significance of religion in their own lives and area, as well as in the world today. Every pupil has an entitlement to religious education (RE). We believe that religious education has a key role in the development of our children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

 

Our RE curriculum is structured so that it makes sense to pupils by offering a clear structure for learning. We teach using the units in the Leicestershire Revised Syllabus, which are all based around the process of ‘making sense of beliefs’, ‘understanding the impact’ and ‘making connections’, which enables our pupils to compare religions as well as with a good grounding of learning individual religions. Our curriculum focuses on core concepts and intends to explore these from different perspectives to enrich pupils’ understanding. We allow pupils to encounter diverse examples of religion and worldviews and our RE curriculum intends to promote religious understanding and respect; to challenge prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping.  Our RE curriculum encourages pupils’ personal development, and how they can apply their learning to living now and in their future lives.

We aim for children to be able to hold a balanced and well-informed conversation about religion and beliefs. We do this by exploring and asking questions, through discussions in RE lessons and with conversations through our local clergy.

 

Implementation

We teach RE using the Leicestershire Revised Syllabus for Religious Education and units from the scheme, ‘Understanding Christianity’. Using this blended approach ensures that pupils develop their knowledge and understanding following similar strands throughout school, which allows them to build upon and make connections in their learning. Our school long-term two year rolling programme focuses on two religions separately in the first two terms and then compares them in the summer term which will help pupils to make sense of and build on their learning through the year.  Our curriculum is enriched with experiences which celebrate the opportunities in our local area. As a voluntary controlled School with a strong Christian ethos, each year group focuses on Christianity with the opportunity for pupils to learn about and evaluate their own views on this and other world religions. We teach R.E. discreetly in both Key Stage 1 and 2 for an hour each week. In Early Years, the opportunities for learning are interwoven around the children’s own life experiences and are linked to learning about an awareness of similarities and differences and celebrating each other’s cultural diversity.

 

 Implementation

Religious Education – Implementation of Skills

 

Milestone 1

Year 1 and Year 2

Milestone 2

Year 3 and Year 4

Milestone 3

Year 5 and Year 6

Understand beliefs and teachings
This concept involves understanding the key teachings of various religions.

• Describe some of the teachings of a religion.

• Describe some of the main festivals or celebrations of a religion.

• Present the key teachings and beliefs of a religion.

• Refer to religious figures and holy books to explain answers.

• Explain how some teachings and beliefs are shared between religions.

• Explain how religious beliefs shape the lives of individuals and communities. 

Understand practices and lifestyles
This concept involves understanding the day to day lives and practices of various religions.

• Recognise, name and describe some religious artefacts, places and practices.

• Identify religious artefacts and explain how and why they are used.

• Describe religious buildings and explain how they are used.

• Explain some of the religious practices of both clerics and individuals.

• Explain the practices and lifestyles involved in belonging to a faith community.

• Compare and contrast the lifestyles of different faith groups and give reasons why some within the same faith may adopt different lifestyles.

• Show an understanding of the role of a spiritual leader.

Understand how beliefs are conveyed
This concept involves understanding how books, scriptures, readings and other important means of communication are used to convey beliefs.

• Name some religious symbols.

• Explain the meaning of some religious symbols.

• Identify religious symbolism in literature and the arts.

• Explain some of the different ways that individuals show their beliefs.

Reflect
This concept involves an appreciation of how religion plays an important role in the lives of some people.

• Identify the things that are important in their own lives and compare these to religious beliefs.

• Relate emotions to some of the experiences of religious figures studied.

• Ask questions about puzzling aspects of life.

• Show an understanding that personal experiences and feelings influence attitudes and actions. 

• Give some reasons why religious figures may have acted as they did.

• Ask questions that have no universally agreed answers.

• Recognise and express feelings about their own identities. Relate these to religious beliefs or teachings.

• Explain their own ideas about the answers to ultimate questions. 

• Explain why their own answers to ultimate questions may differ from those of others. 

Understand values
This concept involves an appreciation of how many people place values as an important aspect of their lives.

• Identify how they have to make their own choices in life.

• Explain how actions affect others.

• Show an understanding of the term ‘morals’.

• Explain how beliefs about right and wrong affect people’s behaviour. 

• Describe how some of the values held by communities or individuals affect behaviour and actions. 

• Discuss and give opinions on stories involving moral dilemmas.

• Explain why different religious communities or individuals may have a different view of what is right and wrong.

• Show an awareness of morals and right and wrong beyond rules (i.e. wanting to act in a certain way despite rules).

• Express their own values and remain respectful of those with different values.

 

Impact

 The learning outcomes for each key question/unit taught using the syllabus supports teachers to assess what pupils know and can do. These allow teachers to devise appropriate learning activities to enable pupils to secure their understanding and skills. Using these unit learning outcomes as stepping stones towards the end of phase outcomes allows teachers to track progress across a year group.  Classroom activities enable pupils to build up knowledge and understanding, in a variety of ways, allowing pupils plenty of opportunities to achieve the outcomes. Through the unit, teachers are aware of how far pupils achieve the outcomes, so as to guide their next steps in teaching. Across the school, termly summative assessments are made where teachers use their professional judgement to look at work samples, recall discussions and other responses to teaching and learning and then record whether a pupil is emerging, meeting expectations or exceeding the specific unit outcomes. We also aim for our R.E. curriculum to impact on the children in the following ways:

  • To consider their own beliefs, values and attitudes and become more tolerant of the beliefs, values, and attitudes of others.
  • To equip our pupils with strong skills to consider issues of community cohesion, diversity, and religious understanding.
  • To help them explore fundamental questions of beliefs and values in relation to a range of contemporary issues.
  • To contribute significantly to pupils’ academic progress and their personal, spiritual and moral development.

 Link to National Curriculum for RE - click here