Intent
At Rectory Farm Primary School, we strive for all children to recognise, understand and respect the diversity of religious and non-religious beliefs in our world. Most pupils at Rectory Farm have no religious belief and whilst our aim is not to encourage children to become believers, we aim to develop knowledgeable, inquisitive, and respectful citizens.
R.E plays a valuable role in teaching children about the spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of our world and through emersion in these elements, children learn to understand and show empathy towards each other encouraging cohesion within our community.
Implementation
- Our RE curriculum is driven through opportunities to encourage oracy through rich discussion based on our whole school oracy programme. This ensures engagement for all and the opportunity for children to talk through their understanding and for teachers to check this understanding before learning moves on.
- RE is taught within a supportive environment where respect for the views of others is paramount.
- We have high aspirations for all children. Our curriculum goes beyond the expectations of the National Curriculum. Children with SEN are taught alongside their peers with scaffolds provided where necessary to ensure learners achieve good outcomes.
- A focus on building a rich bank of vocabulary with access in every lesson to rich texts provides high aspiration for all and for disadvantaged learners.
- Trips out to places of worship and visitors into school from a wide range of faiths, allow children to understand the importance of respectful relationships and the rich diversity of cultures and religions within our local community and the world. Children also learn to appreciate and respect diverse views of others and learn to understand that we can live in a harmonious society whilst upholding differencing views and beliefs. Enrichment experiences contribute to a child’s sense of place and the value of belonging.
- Lessons are well sequenced and progressive with retrieval opportunities built in within each lesson and across year groups e.g.:
- g The Y6 unit ‘Why is the book of Exodus important to Christians and Jews?’ Children bring prior knowledge to this unit through previously taught topics: Y1 Judaism, Y2 Christianity beliefs into practice, Year 3 Festival, Y4 The Old Testament – Promises and Y5 Judaism
- Links to other curriculum areas are made e.g. the high dividend concept of leadership is explored both in history and R.E me.g. Nelson Mandela, Moses and Muhammad
- During Reception and KS1, children explore the beliefs and practices of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and in KS2 make connections between these religions as well as being gradually introduced to the religions of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and those of no faith.
What our children say…
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Why is RE an important subject? |
What are you currently learning about? |
What have you leant in RE before this term? |
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Year 1 |
‘I Like R.E. we listen to stories.’ Cai |
‘We are talking about Christian people. I know the Muslim god is Allah.’ Autumn ‘Christian people go to church and they have a cross like this.’ (drew on paper) Tyler ‘We talked about what we would give our mum for free. I said I would give her a hug.’ Sophia |
‘In Reception Mrs Outten told us stories about Jesus’ Charlie |
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Year 2 |
‘We learn about different religions like Jewish people and Christians.’ Leo ‘We learn about God and Jesus and Muslims.’ Rosie ‘I know the Muslim God is called Allah’ Coby |
‘We are learning about the Christmas Story. We closed our eyes and imagined we were shepherds in the fields. Then the bright light came, and the angel said Jesus was born.’ Juliana ‘We made a big picture of the story.’ Leo |
I remember a Jewish lady coming to our class. She lit candles and showed us Jewish clothes.’ Leo |
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Year 5 |
‘It’s a good subject because they teach you what religions are in the world and what they believe in’ Jaxon ‘I like learning about the different things they believe because they believe opposite things to me –it's like learning a different language.’ |
Matei ‘Humanism- it's not really a religion, they believe in science.’ ‘They believe that animals’ lives are important.’ Elodie ‘When I talked about naming, I deepened it and said that every name has a meaning.’ |
‘In Y5 we learnt about Buddhists and more about Christians’ I remember learning the story of Easter. |
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Year 6 |
'If I met someone I didn't know, then I would understand them. It's a useful subject.’ Sienna ’It's better to know because if you didn’t know and someone else had their belief you wouldn’t be able to make a conversation.’ Rochana |
‘We are learning about the five pillars of Islam. Last week we learnt about Shahadah.’ Emilie ‘When you say Muhammad’s name you have to say Peace be Upon Him. That’s to show respect.’ Luka |
I remember in Year 4 learning the story about Easter and we did an assembly about it. Harry was Jesus and I was the guard.’ Connor |