Principal Aim

“The principal aim of RE 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.”     RE Agree Syllabus, BBC, CBC and Luton, 2018

 

Intent

At Campton Academy we aim to deliver a Religious Education curriculum that is broad and balanced and is ambitious, challenging, enriching and inclusive.  The children are given time to think, talk about and consider the world around them and the beliefs of others in the community and the wider world. 

The curriculum aims to provoke challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.  The children develop knowledge and understanding of principal religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, religious traditions and worldviews.

RE enables pupils to reflect on how to live in light of their learning, developing understanding, skills and attitudes and make connections between their own values and beliefs.  It makes significant contribution to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well as providing important opportunities for exploring British Values. 

 

Implementation

To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in RE, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout the school.  RE is taught through weekly, timetabled lessons and follows the locally agreed syllabus, devised by the SACRE (Standard Advisory Council for RE) for Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Luton.

The curriculum enables the children to develop an understanding of several religions, finding out about places of worship and believers, key stories and rituals, before bringing together and comparing different traditions and looking at religious and non-religious world views in increasing depth.  This allows pupils to draw together their knowledge each year, connecting their learning of different religions and building on prior learning, as they progress through the school.

Each year group will cover a new ‘Key Question’ each half term.   There are three core elements within each unit:

• Making sense of religious and non-religious beliefs
• Understanding the impact and significance of religious and non-religious beliefs
• Making connections between religious and non-religious beliefs.

EYFS develop their knowledge and understanding through discussion and activities during various festivals throughout the year.  They talk about religious stories, including the Bible stories behind Christmas and Easter, recognising their own experiences and feelings of these stories.  This helps them to begin to be aware of similarities and differences between theirs and the lives of others.

The children in Key Stage 1 are introduced to different religions as wider learning themes and can reflect on prior learning as they progress through the units.  They explore a range of religious stories, celebrations and traditions, noting similarities and differences, and talk about their meaning.  The pupils begin to recognise how religious ideas and beliefs impact people’s lives personally and socially. 

During lower Key Stage 2, the pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through deeper enquiry into known religions.  They reflect on what it means to belong to a faith community and how it relates to them and others’ lives, developing the confidence to discuss and question their own and others views of religious beliefs.

 

Impact

The children enjoy and value Religious Education and are keen to learn about different religions and beliefs, speaking confidently about their learning and demonstrating high levels of engagement during lessons.  The half termly units will enable the children to ‘make sense’ of the religions and beliefs studied, ‘understand the impact’ of these beliefs in people’s lives, and to ‘make connections’ in their learning and their wider experience of the world.  It will promote inquisitive minds, respect, tolerance and understanding for all those around them including themselves. 

Progress in RE is demonstrated through regularly reviewing and scrutinising children’s work to ensure that progression of skills is taking place. This is carried out by looking at pupil’s work, observing how they perform in lessons and talking to them about what they know, allowing the needs of individual pupils to be met through differentiation, support and challenge.  Children attain the highest of standards, equipping them with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to reflect people’s cultures and ways of life.