At Leigh Stationers’ Primary Academy, our RE curriculum ensures students gain knowledge and understanding of the major religions of the world and can empathise and understand people with those religious beliefs. RE is structured in a way that allows pupils to extend and challenge themselves, learning more about themselves as they discover more about several key religions from our community and the wider world, giving them the opportunities to express their own insights and ideas the confidence and ability to agree or disagree respectfully
Through the Primary Years Programme IB philosophy, inquiry is intended to support pupils to find possible answers to key questions about meaning, belonging, purpose and truth, about what enables many individuals and communities – locally, nationally and globally – to live together respectfully for the wellbeing of all. It is our intention that RE will enable children to reflect upon and understand their own beliefs as well as those of others, knowing more and remembering more, building on these foundations as they move through education and throughout their lives.
Leigh Stationers’ Primary Academy’s RE curriculum follows the Discovery RE scheme which is inquiry-based key question approach and is linked to the Bexley SACRE Agreed Syllabus (2021-2026). Where appropriate , it is taught within the six transdisciplinary themes of the Primary Years Programme. It is an inclusive, wide-ranging curriculum that offers sequenced substantive content & concepts alongside the broadening of children’s ‘ways of knowing’. RE takes place in lessons, collective worship, as well as through class visits and whole-school events. ‘Ways of knowing’ include opportunities to handle artefacts, to question people directly and to share their personal knowledge and experiences of religious and world views. It is systematic in its approach and is mindful of pupils’ personal knowledge, offering reflective opportunities to consider what they think they know and how growing substantive knowledge may play a part in shaping people’s personal ideas, values and identities. Through the EYFS and Key Stages 1 & 2 programme of study, children progressively gain and deploy skills to understand, interpret and evaluate texts, sources of wisdom and other evidence.
A clear coverage map has been created collaboratively with PYP, the Agreed Syllabus and knowledge of the Leigh Stationers’ Primary Academy religious demographic in mind. This, along with ongoing teacher assessments, enables teachers to ensure learning is spiral and pertinent to the needs of the cohort they are teaching, ensuring that pupils know more and remember more.
We believe that Religious Education provides an opportunity to celebrate and foster awareness of these differences within our school and the wider world. It is a subject that celebrates diversity and challenges stereotypes.
Planning for Religious Education is based on 2 targets from our RE scheme – Discovery RE:
- Learning about Religions
- Learning from Religions
Learning about religion includes enquiry into and investigation of the nature of religion, its key beliefs and teachings, practices, their impacts on the lives of believers and communities, and the varying ways in which these are expressed. It also includes the skills of interpretation, analysis and explanation. Pupils learn to communicate their knowledge and understanding using specialist vocabulary. It also includes identifying and developing an understanding of ultimate questions and ethical issues.
Learning from religion is concerned with developing pupils’ reflection on and response to their own experiences and their learning about religion. It develops pupils’ skills of application, interpretation and evaluation of what they learn about religion, particularly to questions of identity and belonging, meaning, purpose and truth and values and commitments, and communicating their responses.
Inclusion and differentiation for children with SEN and EAL are considered in our planning and teaching as they are in all areas of the curriculum. Within the teaching of RE we make the most of opportunities to help the children develop their sensitivity to relevant issues such as refugees and religious fasting, and to develop positive attitudes towards themselves and others.
The impact of RE will be evident through the way in which pupils are able to articulate their subject knowledge and reflect upon their developing personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences, while respecting the right of others to differ. Equipping them with RE knowledge cumulatively built upon, along with their own experiences, will enable pupils to build further knowledge throughout their lives, becoming thoughtful, reasonable, spiritual citizens and contributing to society meaningfully and respectfully. They will have a knowledgeable foundation upon which to enquire further about the multi religious, multi secular world in which they are a citizen.