RE Curriculum

Intent

At Barley Lane Primary School, we believe that RE is essential in developing pupils’ knowledge and understanding of different religions and beliefs. RE 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. The curriculum intends to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, of other principal religions, religious traditions and worldviews. RE makes important contributions to areas of the school curriculum such as PSHE and the humanities. RE aims to provide opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development, deepening the understanding of the significance of religion in the lives of our pupils. RE helps children and young people become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens and increases community cohesion. It gives them the knowledge, skills and understanding to discern and value truth and goodness, strengthening their capacity for making moral judgements and for evaluating different types of commitment to make positive and healthy choices that feel right for them. RE makes an important contribution to a school’s duty to promote community cohesion. It develops young people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity and challenges racism and discrimination.

Our RE curriculum fits within our wider curriculum intent by providing pupils with a wider range of learning experiences, for example visits to local places of worship, workshops and dialogue with visitors from different faiths. Pupils are able to express their own beliefs, listen to and question those of others. In this way they are empowered to share their understanding of the world and their place within it. Additionally the RE curriculum goes hand in hand with our school rules and values and allows children to be well-rounded,  open minded individuals with a strong sense of self and respect for people from all backgrounds and of all faiths and none. The curriculum enables pupils to strengthen their knowledge of the major world faiths outside of their own experiences as well as the beliefs of historic civilisations and make links between them e.g. Celts, Ancient Egyptians, Tudors. 

Implementation

At Barley Lane, RE is planned, taught and assessed using the Redbridge Agreed Syllabus 2015. In early years and foundation stage RE is taught through the specific area of ‘Understanding of the world’ (people and communities and the world). In Key Stages 1 and 2 pupils focus on a world religion each year alongside Christianity and visit a place of worship. RE is taught weekly in one hour sessions in Key Stages 1 and 2 and visits to places of worship contribute towards the required teaching hours for RE (36 hours in foundation stage and KS1 and 45 hours in KS2 a year). RE days are also planned in which children visit a place of worship in the morning and continue their learning and independent tasks in the afternoon. Re learning is recorded in pupils’ foundation books and on RE displays within the classroom and around school. In addition to this local visitors and groups from different faiths supplement the teaching of RE. Daily collective worship and celebration of festivals from different faiths expose pupils to differences and similarities between religions. Themes for daily collective worship include respect, responsibility, resilience, honesty and compassion.

Impact

Children will be able to demonstrate and apply the British value of mutual respect for and tolerance. Pupils will show mutual respect and tolerance towards others and this will be seen in their interactions with their peers and adults around them. They will have the knowledge, skills and understanding to discern and value truth and goodness which will strengthen their capacity for making moral judgments and help them to make positive and healthy life choices. Pupils will be able to express themselves and explain their choices confidently. Pupils will appreciate diversity, Identify and challenge racism and discrimination.