Religious Education Curriculum Aims

The teaching and learning of R.E. upholds our school values of PRIDE (perseverance, respect, inquisitiveness, determination, and enthusiasm) through its enquiry-based approach.

At Heathfields Infant and Wilnecote Junior Academy, we want our children to make sense of what they have learnt in RE and gain an understanding of different cultures and religions through shared experiences, reasoning, and reflection.

The aim of our RE teaching is to deepen children’s critical thinking skills through greater subject knowledge and to allow their own spiritual development. Our belief is that, using an enquiry-based model well, children’s critical thinking skills can be developed, their motivation to learn increased, and their knowledge and understanding of, and empathy with people and their beliefs, religious or otherwise, will be enhanced. This approach takes very seriously the philosophy that children are free to make their own choices and decisions concerning religion and belief. 

R.E. Curriculum Intent

Pupils will learn to express their insights and to agree or disagree respectfully. By the time a child leaves at the end of KS2, they will be expected to: 

• Develop a deepening knowledge and understanding about a range of religious and non-religious world views.  
• Describe and explain the beliefs of others. 
• Describe and explain ways in which beliefs are expressed. 
• Know and understand the significance and impact of beliefs and practises of individuals, communities, and societies. 
• Connect these together and draw links between religions and with their own beliefs as an individual in an ever-changing society. 
• Gain and deploy deepening understanding of specialist vocabulary and terms.  
• Know and understand about religious diversity within the region, as well as nationally and globally.  
• Gain and deploy skills that enable critical thinking and enquiry in relation to the material they study.  
• Reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, values, and beliefs with increasing discernment.

 

We are committed to providing our children with an exciting and positive learning environment, with a wide range of opportunities to support their learning, in which they can develop their knowledge and understanding of religions while contributing to their spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development. 

R.E. Implementation

• R.E. is well planned and resourced with clear structure to sustain pupils’ natural curiosity so that they are eager to learn and develop investigative skills. 
• Opportunities for cross-curricular learning are considered and children are encouraged to use the vocabulary taught during R.E. lessons in other subjects and in real life situations.  
• Children are given opportunities to reflect on prior learning through their knowledge organiser, which is stuck in at the start of each academic year. 
• Opportunities for assessment are carefully considered and implemented during R.E. lessons to address any misconceptions and support children’s understanding. 
• R.E. is assessed through the children’s acquisition of key vocabulary each half-term. This is then retested at the end of the academic year to see what the children have retained.  
• R.E. is all-inclusive and diverse where any misconceptions are addressed to enhance R.E. concepts. 
• Learning relates to real life experiences of the children so that they can apply their understanding to the real world. 

British Values

Religious Education is a key player in engendering knowledge and understanding which can lead to tolerance and respect for others and their beliefs. It encourages evaluation and critical thinking, equipping our children to take time to consider the belief positions they encounter. RE contributes significantly to the British Values agenda and the mapping documents clearly show the British Values links across the year groups. British Values include Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. 

Other ways in which we promote a broad religious education for all is by reading stories from a range of cultures and religions, using real life examples that are in the news and bringing children’s attention to celebrations and traditions. This will ensure that all children develop a good understanding of respect and tolerance for all. 

R.E. Subject Impact

In R.E., we strive to ensure that our children’s progress is in line with or exceeding their potential when we consider the varied starting points and different world views of our children. At Wilnecote, children in the past have been considered to have a very narrow world view and their perceptions of the world are heavily influenced by the surrounding environments. We measure the children’s starting points carefully using a range of materials, including, but not limited to, vocabulary banks to assess the children’s prior knowledge and then how the children’s knowledge progresses as the year goes on. We intend that the impact is that children will be prepared for life in their next school stage, in modern Britain and the wider world as we recognise the importance of this for young people to become a good citizen and be inclusive within their own society.  

Involving the Wider Community

We aim to share as much of our R.E. learning with parents/caregivers as we can as it is important that our children remember the skills that we have taught them in school and are able to apply them both in school and at home. This will be done in several ways such as:

• Inviting parents in to school to support some amazing opportunities provided for our children.
• Communicating information via letters.
• Inviting external agencies and charities to visit our school to provide our children with enriching experiences.
• Visiting our local church to experience religion within context. 
• Sharing our learning and experiences of R.E. on the school website.
• Sharing media of our learning via the school’s social media handles under the hashtag #wjaRE

Instagram: @hiwjstaffs

Twitter: @hiwjstaffs

Relevant Documents

Link to RE National Curriculum

Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus 2023

Miss Paskin is the R.E. Lead at Wilnecote Junior Academy. 

Miss Matthews is the R.E. Lead at Heathfields Infant Academy.