Intent
“Religious education in a Church school should enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. (Church of England Statement of Entitlement 2019). It will help educate for dignity and respect, encouraging all to live well together. The teaching of Religious Education is a legal requirement and is also a necessary part of a ‘broad and balanced curriculum.’
The aims of Religious Education
• Know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs, using an approach that critically engages with Biblical text;
• Gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied;
• Engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience;
• Recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places;
• Explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.
• Give a theologically informed and thoughtful account of Christianity as a living and diverse faith;
• Show an informed and respectful attitude to religions and non-religious worldviews in their search for God and meaning;
• Engage in meaningful and informed dialogue with those of other faiths and none;
• Reflect critically and responsibly on their own spiritual, philosophical and ethical worldviews through enquiry based learning
Our Religious Education curriculum will be enhanced through links with the local faith community and St Benedict’s Church, Glinton.
Implementation
Our pupils engage in weekly RE lessons which meet the requirements of the agreed syllabus. The curriculum mirrors the world we live in, covering Christianity and other main religions, as well as some non-religious world views.
As a core subject, teachers are committed to providing quality weekly lessons which can be accessed by all learners. Teachers plan from the Peterborough Diocese Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2023-2028) and the Understanding Christianity support materials. Across the school, Christianity will be studied in RE in each year group for at least 50% of RE curriculum time. In order to achieve a rich, deep knowledge and understanding of Christianity, the resource “Understanding Christianity” is used. Pupils will also study specific religions and thematic units, which make links to other faiths (Year 1 upwards) and non-religious world views. In pre-school and Reception floor books will be used to capture children’s learning outcomes for key questions to be explored that feed into Year 1 upwards.
The syllabus is underpinned by three core elements
RE expectations for staff
Assessment
At the end of each unit of work, pupils return to the enquiry question used and produce an end of assessment piece using using SOLO Taxonomy – Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes – a method proposed by Biggs and Collis . Each piece is assessed against given criteria including: PT1 Knowledge and understanding religions and worldviews PT 2 - Responding to religion and worldviews. Teachers assess whether a pupil is emerging, meeting expectations or exceeding the specific outcomes. Teachers will need to carry out this assessment four times a year during Autumn 1, Spring 1, Spring 2 and Summer 2 terms.
Impact and Assessment