Religious Education (R.E)
INTENT
RE helps to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. At Maple Tree Primary we follow the “Identities, Meanings, Values: The RE Agreed Syllabus 2018-2023 (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Luton). We aim to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other principal religions, traditions and world views.
Through discrete lessons, assemblies and circle time we intend for the teaching of RE to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society. We want the children to know how religious education promotes discernment and enables pupils to combat prejudice, preparing them for adult life, employment and life-long learning.
Click the table below to see our whole school overview for R.E.
Parents are entitled to arrange for children to be withdrawn from Collective Worship or Religious Education or both in which case they should contact the Headteacher.
IMPLEMENTATION
RE (Religious Education) is taught to all children as we see it as an important element in the broad and balanced curriculum we aim to provide. RE is taught through stories, role play, discussion and debate and the use of the local community. Local church volunteers present weekly assemblies with a Christian focus to children from EYFS to Year 6. Parents and carers are invited to participate in Easter and Harvest assemblies each year. EYFS perform in a Christmas nativity, Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 a Christmas performance containing a mixture of singing, reading and acting.
During each Key Stage, pupils are taught knowledge, skills and understanding through learning about Christianity, Judaism and Islam through KS1, adding Sikhism, and Hinduism in KS2. Each unit of work identifies prior learning and shows how this is built upon.
RE is taught weekly in most year groups though some classes may block units within a term to allow suitable links to be made to specific religious festivals taking place or to link in with other topics being taught. Children gain a deeper understanding of the religion studied through the use of high quality resources/artefacts.
The following skills are used, in order to strengthen the skills and deepen the understanding and knowledge taught: investigating, reflecting, recalling and retelling, exploring, discussing and empathising. Children can discuss and compare the lives of people they have studied from a variety of different religions.
Attitudes which are fundamental to RE are: curiosity and wonder, commitment, fairness, respect, self- understanding, open-mindedness, critical mindedness and enquiry. These work alongside the SMSC links and British Values implemented within school as a whole.
Assemblies take place across the whole school and in classes; these are delivered by senior leaders, class teachers and our local church group, ‘Open the Book’.
Visits to places of worship, and visitors representing different religions are encouraged as they provide a variety of first-hand experiences for our children, to spark their interest and relate new learning to their own experience.
IMPACT
Our RE curriculum is well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.
The children make progress by knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more. They need to transfer and embed key concepts into their long-term memory and apply them fluently.
Children will make at least good progress from their last point of assessment.
We measure the impact of our curriculum in the following ways:
- Children demonstrate a positive attitude towards people of any religion and show an understanding of cultural beliefs different to their own.
- They demonstrate respectful behaviour to all and this is transferable outside of school in the wider community and beyond.
- Assessing children’s understanding of each unit’s linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
- Images and videos of the children’s learning.
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
- Pupil’s books are scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
- Marking of written work in books.
