Religious Education

Vision

‘And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ Micah 6:8.

Through the teachings of Jesus, all can flourish spiritually, emotionally and academically throughout life, living out love and justice for all. Our Christian values of love, justice, compassion, wisdom, forgiveness and friendship underpin the life of the school community and impact on our daily lives. Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School strives to provide the best possible education for our children. We aim for excellence within our happy, secure school where each individual’s achievements are valued and celebrated. By using a holistic approach, we will provide a curriculum that offers a diverse and challenging environment to inspire and motivate every child in our care.

Intent

Through our Religious Education curriculum we aim for children to:

• Know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith that is relevant to daily life through the exploration of core beliefs, using an approach that critically engages with biblical text.
• 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.
• Recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places.
• Explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.

Implementation

In Reception, our children will experience enquiry based R.E. related activities from Christianity and a range of world religions to contribute to the Foundation Stage curriculum requirements. By the end of the summer term, they will be moving towards the statutory requirements for Key Stage 1.

In Key Stage 1, the majority of work in R.E. will be based on the Christian faith with the introduction of Judaism and Islam.

Islam, Sikhism, Judaism and Hinduism will be taught in Key Stage 2 where knowledge and understanding will be built upon. The children are also introduced to Humanism as a non-religious world view. 50% of R.E. work will focus on Christianity (as outlined by the Cheshire West and Chester agreed syllabus).

R.E. will be taught 5% of the timetable: as separate lessons or as block units. In Key Stage 1 this amounts to 50 minutes per week. In Key Stage 2 children will be taught R.E. for 1 hour per week.

• R.E. in our school is organised using a whole school overview. This lays out which religions, concepts and themes are studied by each year group.
• Wherever possible all children will learn from primary source material as well as through the use of outside speakers with relevant experience and audio-visual aids.
• R.E. will be taught throughout the school, mainly by the class teacher and regularly supported by clergy from local churches and visiting speakers.
• R.E. may be taught in a ‘whole class’ setting but with flexibility to allow for discussion, questioning and reflections in small groups and individually. Higher order thinking questions, based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, underpin the teaching of R.E. which stimulates the children’s enquiry skills.
• Visits to local churches and other places of worship will enhance the children’s knowledge and understanding.

A variety of teaching approaches are encouraged:

• Teacher presentations, role play and story telling
• Higher order questions and answer sessions, discussions and debates to develop enquiry skills
• Individual and group research
• Photographs, pictures and artefacts
• I.T., film, CD, radio to research and communicate ideas. All resources are in labelled boxes in the Key Stage 2 corridor. Bibles are in every classroom and class sets are available.
• Annual Interfaith week and workshops led by visitors of different faiths.
• Progress will be assessed using ‘Can I statements’ taken from R.E. planning.
• Children will self-assess against the ‘Can I statements’ after each topic.
• R.E. may be linked to other subjects as appropriate.
• Classroom support will be welcomed under the guidance of the teacher e.g. skilled individuals and parents

All children receive the same curriculum offer. Our ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum is adapted to ensure learning for all our children is never narrowed. RE resources and additional support are available and utilised where appropriate to further enhance first quality teaching.

Impact

The Religious Education curriculum at Guilden Sutton C of E Primary School is of high quality and well planned to allow pupils to develop their knowledge and show progression. Children will have:

• Grown in understanding of others through learning activities involving sharing and co-operation.
• Developed trust and respect of others.
• Started to formulate their own sense of purpose in life.
• Embarked upon a personal search for a faith by which to live.
• Learnt something of the religious experience of others.
• Developed their own beliefs, values and ideals in light of their experiences.
• Developed respect for other people, their beliefs and their lifestyles.
• Started to develop an enquiring attitude towards religion and to explore activities of prayer and worship.

Here at Guilden Sutton Church of England Primary School, our children are confident theologians and understand the purpose of RE and how it can prepare them for the wider world. The vast majority of pupils reach end of year expectations.

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