Religious Education

Religious Education is a chance for pupils to explore the view points of 6 major religions in the world and develops the children’s personal, social and spiritual understanding. It underpins the growth of empathy and respect for religious and non-religious world views.

At Bincombe Valley School, we design our curriculum in this subject in such a way that enables children to investigate our Golden threads: beliefs, expression and actions of six religious/non religious world views including: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sanatana Dharma, Sikhi and Humanism.

Intent – What does the RE curriculum intend to do?

The purpose of RE is to give pupils the key knowledge of six religions and the skills necessary for them to explore the views and actions of others around the world and through history.

Pupils will learn through studying the stories of each of the religions and discover facts about their festivals and acts of worship. They will also learn about significant people associated with each religious viewpoint and learn to question what impact they had on the world.

Our children will be taught RE in a way which teaches respect and empathy for others point of view and encourage a curiosity to explore deep questions about the world and how people should treat each other.

Implementation – What will this look like in practice?

As a one-and-a-half form entry school, Bincombe Valley has a rolling curriculum plan for 2 years to avoid repetition in unit enquiries. To facilitate this we run a half termly plan where each year group studies the same religion across the school. This is with the exception of year 5/6 who are introduced to Humanism in one half term a year. Teachers are supported by the Jigsaw scheme of work to help deliver these lessons. This encourages the children to

investigate and evaluate ideas from each religion and express their views through discussion and writing ideas.

The overview plan for this can be seen by clicking the links below.

Overview 

Key Stage 1

Lower Key Stage 2

Upper Key Stage 2

SEND support for pupils in R.E.

Lessons focus on ensuring children are learning the key knowledge of each religion including who and where do people worship and how do religious world views affect the way people behave and treat each other.

Belief

· Discover and discuss the religious viewpoint of people who follow a belief system.

· Evaluate how this belief affects people’s behaviour and how we can learn from this.

· Express our own beliefs and views.

Expression and Action

· Discover how people who follow each religion express their faith through worship, pilgrimage or daily practices.

· Evaluate how people’s expression and action aim to build a better world for people to live in.

· Think about their own view points through discussion.

Significant people and stories

· Learn the events recorded in history of people who have played an important role in the formation of religious thinking.

Impact – What progress will children make?

Our children enjoy and value learning about other people’s religious world view and discovering people who changed the world. Children will learn and appreciate the value of Religious Beliefs in the context of their personal, social and spiritual understanding of the world.

Progress in Religious Education is demonstrated through regularly reviewing and scrutinizing what pupils remember and are able to record or discuss in accordance with our assessment policy to ensure that greater understanding and progression of knowledge is taking place. Namely through:

· Looking at pupil’s work, especially over time as they gain knowledge

· Observing how children join in with class discussions, showing empathy for others viewpoint

· Conducting regular pupil voice meetings to gauge what pupils are remembering across the year.

· Observing how children apply their knowledge and link ideas when answering questions.

The RE curriculum will contribute to the children’s personal development in personal, social and spiritual understanding and self reflection. This would be evidenced by them being able to discuss confidently their ideas and show empathy of other people’s ideas and sharing their work with others, showing memory for the knowledge they have learned.

*Parents do have the right to withdraw their children from all or part of the Religious Education curriculum. We would encourage discussion with parents who may be considering this.