Religious Education curriculum statement

“The curriculum for a maintained school must be a balanced and broadly based one which ‘promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and of society, and prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.“

Department for Children, schools and families: Religious Education in English schools: Non-statutory guidance.

At the Oaks Primary School, RE is an curriculum subject. RE enables our pupils to be aware of the wide range of cultures and diversity which form part of our community, the UK and wider world. RE contributes to pupils’ personal development and well-being by promoting mutual respect and tolerance. We believe that RE plays an important role in preparing our pupils for adult life, employment and lifelong learning.  It gives them the knowledge, skills and understanding to discern and value truth and goodness, strengthening their capacity for making moral judgements and for evaluating different types of commitment to make positive and healthy choices. 

 

Intent

At The Oaks, we want our children to have high aspirations, a belief in themselves and realise that anything is possible if they put their mind to it. 

What do we want for our pupils?

  • To deepen pupils understanding through an enquiry based RE curriculum
  • To develop a confidence in sharing their own thoughts and opinions with others  and to value their own and others opinions through discussions
  • To develop an attitude of a responsible global citizen
  • To show tolerance of others beliefs, religions and life choices
  • To build positive, respectful relationships with other people
  • To broaden and build on prior knowledge as they progress through the school developing their key concepts, vocabulary, knowledge and skills
  • To have an awareness of the wider world around them
  • To promote equality and diversity in relation to where they live and the wider world

What do we want from our curriculum? 

  • To provoke challenging questions that develop pupil’s knowledge of Christianity, other principal religions, and religious traditions that examine these questions, fostering personal reflection and spiritual development 
  • To encourage pupils to explore their own beliefs (whether they are religious or non-religious) and to express their responses. 
  • To enable pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society 
  • To teach pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs, and helps to challenge prejudice 
  • To prompt pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to wider society. It encourages empathy, generosity and compassion. 

 

Implementation 

Religious Education at The Oaks is taught in half termly blocks throughout the year and we use the Cheshire West and Cheshire (CWaC) RE syllabus scheme of work and long term planning. This ensures full coverage and depth of learning that builds across each year group. The religions covered are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Sikhism, along with a free choice unit with an input on Humanism. 

At the start of each unit a key question is shared and the children explore knowledge and skills across the unit in order to answer the question at the end. Existing knowledge is checked at the beginning of each unit through identifying what the children already know. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children’s starting points and that it takes account of pupil voice, incorporating children’s interests. The class teacher will adapt the CWaC knowledge organiser for their class, adapting vocabulary and questions as needed, as well as adding two key concepts which they will want the children to have a greater, in depth, understanding of at the end of the unit of work. These concepts will be repeated numerous times across the unit and be referred to in each lesson to ensure that they are absorbed into the children’s long term memory. The completed knowledge organiser is shared with all children at the beginning of the unit and at the start of each lesson to support them in becoming familiar with key vocabulary for this block. At the end of each unit, children complete a blank knowledge organiser to show what they have learnt across the unit. This is used, alongside work in their curriculum books and teacher judgement from lessons, to assess children in their understanding and retainment of vocabulary and concepts across the unit.

 

 Impact 

The impact of a high quality RE curriculum will ensure that:

  • Children understand that the UK has a rich heritage of culture and diversity. This is continuing today in an era of globalisation and an increasingly interdependent world.
  • Children will demonstrate and apply the British Values of democracy, tolerance and mutual respect.
  • Children will have the knowledge and understanding of concept and vocabulary to convey their views and to respectfully understand the views of others.
  • Children are prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

We enable our children to have a healthy outlook towards school and their peers.  As a result, children will be able to achieve success across the wider curriculum and further in life. Teachers provide sequenced RE lessons that build on pupil’s learning and understanding and assess pupil’s progress.

Promoting and building  every child’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development and education is fundamental to the heart of the school. We develop SMSC through:

– Our art curriculum – pupils study a diverse range of artists, develop expression through art and engage in art therapy activities.
– Regular teaching of RE – pupils study a range of different faiths and cultures studying the Cheshire RE syllabus.
– Circle time – circle time reinforces expectations and school rules and engages pupils in activities to promote their SMSC, acceptance and understanding
– Our inclusive, nurturing ethos embedded in the school every day through the rapport our teachers have with pupils and through the way teachers care for our pupils and know them by name and nature

Linked to SMSC, we at The Oaks promotes fundamental British Values through our curriculum, British Values House Point system and weekly dedicated Values based activity and curriculum project weeks. The British Values House point system rewards pupils for demonstrating British Values through their words and actions, and supports the school in their building of pupils to be respectful, tolerant and courteous individuals.

 

Educational visits and visitors as part of our curriculum enrichment include:

  • Christingle service at St Thomas’ Church
  • Easter experience

 

Please follow the link to find the agreed syllabus documents:

RE overview 23-24 including non religious world view

SMSC Policy 2021