Religious Education

Religious Education in School

Intent

Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It promotes respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. The principle aim of RE is to engage pupils in an enquiry approach where they can develop an understanding and appreciation for the expression of beliefs, cultural practices and influence of principle religions and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community. Religious Education is a curriculum entitlement for all children and the school follows the Derbyshire ‘Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education’.  Religious Education is aimed at developing an understanding and respect for the beliefs, values and practices of other people. We teach children about beliefs, stories, values, traditions, religious expression and behaviours of a variety of world religions.

The key aims for religious education are reflected in three statements:

1 - To know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews

2- To express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews

3 –To gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews

The development of knowledge, skills and understanding focuses on these three key aspects of learning in Religious Education.

Implementation

Religious Education is unique in the school curriculum in that it is neither a core nor a foundation subject, however the Guidance released in 2010 views it as an important curriculum subject. 

Early Years Foundation Stage

Pupils are introduced to Christianity as the ‘heritage religion’ and the one that most influences school and community life. They are taught about traditions, beliefs and world views outside of their own experiences through exploring other cultures and practices in the wider world. 

Key Stage One

During this key stage, pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through religion and belief as well as wider learning themes. They are introduced to other principle religions and can reflect on prior learning as they progress through the units.

Impact

We envision RE curriculum impacting the pupils in the following ways:

• extend their knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs
• develop a religious vocabulary and interpret religious symbolism in a variety of forms
• reflect on questions of meaning, offering their own thoughtful and informed insights into religious and secular world-views
• explore ultimate questions of beliefs and values in relation to a range of contemporary issues in an ever-changing society