Vision

Religious Education for children and young people provokes challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life.  It develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity amongst other religion and religious traditions.  RE enables pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society.  It teaches pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs and helps to challenge prejudice.  RE prompts pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to the wider society.  It encourages empathy, generosity and compassion.

RE Curriculum Intent

The curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils:

1. Know about and understand a range of religions and world views, so that they can:

• describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals
• identify, investigate and respond to questions posed, and responses, offered by some of the sources of wisdom found in religions and worldviews
• appreciate and appraise the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.

 

2. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence

• individuals and communities
• express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues
• appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion

 

3. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, responding creatively
• enquire into what enables different individuals and communities to live together respectfully for the wellbeing of all
• articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly in order to explain why they may be important in their own and other people’s lives.

RE Curriculum Implementation

At Barrow Hill Primary Academy, we provide a progressive curriculum for Religious Education following the Derbyshire and Derby City Agreed Syllabus.  The curriculum begins in Early Years focussing on what children already know and what is special to them, and knowledge and skills are built upon as children progress through the school.  Children take part in discussions and activities surrounding religious festivals such as the Nativity, Christingle, Holi, Diwali, Eid, Chinese New Year and Easter.  Our Religious Education curriculum is accessible to all of our children, and we provide appropriate levels of support and challenge where it is required.

The school Long Term Plan outlines the units to be taught in each year group as a two-year rolling cycle in order to ensure progression of the appropriate knowledge and skills throughout their primary school journey.  We are developing our use of Knowledge Organisers to ensure that ‘sticky knowledge’ and ‘key vocabulary’ are embedded into the learning journey sequence.  This will support teachers when assessing what the children have remembered and will be a useful visual prompt when revisiting prior learning. 

Opportunities are provided for the children to visit places of worship.  Community links with the Methodist Church and Church of England have led to school assemblies, school visits and support with RE teaching. 

Religious Education Impact

Our Religious Education curriculum is high quality, well thought out and planned according to the needs of our children.

We measure the impact of Religious Education through:

• Monitoring of Religious Education content (in RE books, folders, digital work on Class Dojo and learning visits).
• Monitoring through discussion in whole school staff meetings and key stage meetings
• Pupil discussions about their learning