Religious Education
Intent
At Mill Lane Primary School, we believe it is important for all our pupils to learn about and from religions and worldviews, so that they can understand more fully the world around them. The aim of Religious Education in our school is to help pupils to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that they can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.
Religious Education plays an important role, along with other curriculum areas, in promoting social awareness and understanding in our pupils. We encourage them to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their own beliefs, values and experiences. Religious Education also offers important opportunities for exploring British Values, ensuring our pupils are aware of their rights and responsibilities as UK citizens. Our vision is of a community where people of different religions and beliefs live side by side, displaying mutual respect, understanding and friendship.
Our school, and wider local community, are made up of many religions and worldviews, which allows us to learn and celebrate first-hand with our families. Celebrating our diversity is important to our delivery of Religious Education at Mill Lane. Our curriculum is enhanced further by visitors and visits to different places of worship in our local area.
Implementation
At Mill Lane Primary School, Religious Education is given at least 5% of curriculum time. It is taught as a discrete subject although sometimes, links across the curriculum can be found without diluting its integrity. RE themed days and visits enhance our provision.
We use the Stockton SACRE Agreed Syllabus as the basis for our Religious Education curriculum. The syllabus has been designed by subject experts to develop and deliver excellence in RE throughout the whole school. It does this by studying one religion at a time in a systematic approach before bringing together and comparing different traditions in a thematic study.
Our teaching and learning approach has three core elements, which are interwoven together to allow for breadth, depth, flexibility and progress. These enable pupils to ‘make sense’ of the religious and non-religious worldviews studied, ‘understand the impact’ of these beliefs in people’s lives and to ‘make connections’ in their own learning and with their wider experience of the world.
Our spiral curriculum is coherently sequenced to enable pupils to revisit core concepts in religions and beliefs with increasing depth, so that they are able to embed knowledge and build effectively upon their prior learning as they progress through school. Vocabulary is an important aspect of our RE curriculum, with new vocabulary introduced at the beginning of each new topic and referred to throughout. Our enquiry-based approach means that pupils are empowered to be critical thinkers with motivation to develop a rich, deep understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews.
In EYFS, Religious Education is taught through purposeful play and a balance of adult-led and child-initiated activities connected to the seven areas of learning. Pupils will encounter Christianity and other religions and worldviews as part of their growing sense of self, their own community and their place within it.
In KS1, pupils study in depth the religious traditions of Christians, Jews and Muslims. In KS2, pupils study Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews. They may also encounter other religious and non-religious worldviews (e.g. Humanism) in thematic units, as appropriate to the cultural and diverse needs of our local community.
The children in Classes 7 and 8 are taught using their own personalised curriculum. They access a hands-on curriculum that follows the thread of the whole school planning. Their work is differentiated following assessments using PIVATs and personal assessments.
There are no presumptions made as to the religious backgrounds and beliefs of the pupils and staff. We value the religious background of all members of the school community and hope this will encourage individuals to share their own experiences with others freely. All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are and can be made between home, school, and a faith community.
We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils. We promote teaching in Religious Education that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children.
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Impact
Our Religious Education Curriculum is high quality and is planned well to demonstrate progression, building on and consolidating prior learning.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through assessment against the unit learning outcomes. Progression is assessed through evaluation of the children’s written work and consideration of their responses and contributions to discussions.
Learning walks, work scrutinise, pupil voice and staff voice ensure that all children have quality teaching and learning in this area of the curriculum
