Religious Education
RE at Overleigh St Mary’s C of E Primary School
Intent
At Overleigh St. Mary’s, Religious Education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
"Religious Education encourages pupils to learn from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while exploring their own beliefs and questions of meaning". (Religious Education the non-statutory national framework)
At Overleigh St Mary’s Religious education and Collective Worship shall be in accordance with the principles and practice of the Church of England and according to the religious education syllabus and guidelines of the Chester Diocesan Board of Education and Cheshire West and Chester Agreed syllabus.
Through the teaching of Religious Education, children will gain essential knowledge of Christianity and other religions and worldviews, as well as skills and attitudes such as critical thinking and empathy.
"This understanding of others’ worldviews is an essential first step to enabling each pupil to understand, reflect on and develop their own personal worldview, which is one of the core tasks of education". (Religious Education and World Views in Cheshire West and Chester)
The spiritual and moral development of our children underpins all aspects of our school life as outlined in our vision.
Love God, Love Ourselves, Love People
Informed
- Children learn about features of Christianity including how believers worship, how their faith influences the way they live and behave, important people, stories and artifacts that are key to the Christian faith.
- Children develop their knowledge of other religions and worldviews including key features of other faiths, how believers worship and how their faith influences the way they live their lives.
- Children learn about different faiths and world views through an immersive and creative way which will enable them to personify concepts of beliefs.
Articulate
- Through the teaching of subject specific vocabulary and opportunities to discuss different views and values the children develop their ability to think critically, develop empathy, reflect on their own views and values.
Empowered
- A focus on a respectful curiosity about different religions and beliefs and demonstrating a genuine interest empowers children of all faiths to have the confidence to express their views, values and beliefs and feel that their views are valid.
- Allowing children to consider how religions and other world views perceive the value of human beings, and their relationships with one another, with the natural world and with God enables them to reflect and develop their own views and ideas on religious and spiritual issues. Empowering the children to believe that they too can form a view and can theologise.
- An appreciation of world views and human values is essential to fully engaging in a rich spiritual life.
- All children including those who have SEND or are disadvantaged are supported to fully access the Religious Education curriculum. This may include additional adult support, adapted resources or the use of visual supports. Structured sentence stems and taught vocabulary scaffold children in discussion.
Implementation
In RE, children will be provided with opportunities and experiences to reach the desired national curriculum expectations by the end of Key Stage 2. They will achieve this through the developmental progression in their knowledge, skills and understanding on a termly and yearly basis. In the Foundation Stage, R.E. is an integral part of Knowledge and Understanding of the World and the program focuses on Christianity and also explores Judaism, Hinduism and Islam.
KS1 focuses on Christianity, Islam and Judaism; KS2 focuses on Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Humanism. All planning is based upon the concepts of beliefs, practices and values of the religions studied. Children are given the opportunity to explore themes which develop their awareness and understanding of spiritual, moral and religious issues. Children encounter religion through a variety of strategies, such as reading, discussion, stillness and reflection, looking at pictures, handling artefacts, drama, hearing stories, personal research (e.g. the internet).
Children respond by finding out more, personal reflection, evaluation, sharing ideas, role play and art. The children have first-hand experiences from visitors and visits to places of Worship.
Impact
The leadership team check that this impact is being secured through monitoring the subject on a regular and frequent basis. The method of monitoring supports the ongoing development of the curriculum. This includes:
- Staff subject knowledge, which is audited each year to ensure knowledge is secure, and additional support provided if necessary
- Frequent staff meetings and updates to discuss and evaluate the effectiveness of topics with the subject leaders. From this, medium term planning is amended and adapted to ensure the curriculum remains relevant for the children
- A ‘pupil voice’, to allow pupils to contribute to their curriculum content
- Monitoring of work against the medium-term plans, so that inconsistencies can be addressed
- Tracking of content against the long-term plan of the school, to ensure the full breadth of the curriculum is met.
The impact of this is to ensure that children at Overleigh are equipped morally and spiritually, in addition to good knowledge and understanding of a wide range of faiths, which will enable them to understand, reflect on and develop their own personal worldview, be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.