Religious Education
RE Intent, Implementation, and Impact
‘Growing Global Citizens’
Intent
At Broseley C of E Primary School, we aim to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live. We want children to gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. Through explicit teaching and experiential learning, we inspire in pupils, a curiosity and fascination about the diverse world we live in.
The programme of study we follow looks to explore this diverse world, enabling the children to learn about beliefs and practices around the world and know a range of influential figures who shape our beliefs and the beliefs of others.
As a Church of England school, we expect our children to live by Christian values and become positive members of the Broseley community and challenge any forms of discrimination. The children will reflect on emotions and opinions and recount stories from the bible and discuss perennial questions about life.
Trips and visitors are planned for all year groups to not only provide pupils with experiences beyond their own day to day lives but enable them to build on the knowledge and skills taught in lessons, collective worship and assemblies. The Religious Education curriculum at Broseley C of E is diverse and ensures that all parts of society are represented in the people and places that are studied.
Implementation: How is RE taught at Broseley C of E?
At Broseley we follow the National Curriculum for Religious Education and our topics are based on the big questions from the Shropshire Agreed syllabus. The guidelines around our RE curriculum are:
- Parents have a right to withdraw
- 4- 5-year-olds must do 36 hours of tuition
- 5 – 7-year-olds must do 36 hours of tuition
- 7 – 11-year-olds must do 45 hours of tuition
- RE is different to collective worship
- RE objectives must be clear
- EYFS teachers should be able to indicate opportunities they are providing to integrate RE into the learning
Across the school we teach Christianity alongside the most popular religions. Planning is sequenced in the following way to ensure consistency when moving between year groups and key stages in preparation for transition to secondary school and beyond:
The teaching and learning approach has three core elements, which are woven together to provide breadth and balance within teaching and learning about religions and beliefs.
RE in EYFS
Planned teaching experiences will support children’s learning and development needs, as identified through holistic assessment. Good Early Years teaching stems from children’s own experience. Many practitioners will find ways to draw on the wealth of religious or spiritual experiences that some families may bring with them.
The EYFS statutory framework also outlines an expectation that practitioners reflect on the different ways in which children learn and the characteristics of effective learning:
- Playing and exploring – children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’.
- Active learning – children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties and enjoy achievements.
- Creating and thinking critically – children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.
What do children gain from of RE in this age group?
RE sits very firmly within the areas of personal, social, and emotional development and understanding the world. This framework enables children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others, and to learn how to form positive and respectful relationships. They will do this through a balance of guided, planned teaching and pursuing their own learning within an enabling environment. They will begin to understand and value the differences of individuals and groups within their own immediate community. Children will have the opportunity to develop their moral and cultural awareness.
Prior to the start of each RE unit
Each learning sequence will begin with an explicit explanation of what Religious Education is and the purpose of studying it. Children are shown what they can study at university and the jobs linked to the subject as well as the significant people and achievements within this field.
Revision
Prior knowledge will be revisited and connections with other topics and units will be identified. Religious beliefs that are dominant in different areas around the world. Transferable skills will also be highlighted e.g. Formulating opinions and arguments in relation to existing stereotypes that may exist in our community.
Knowledge Organiser
Pupils are provided with a Knowledge Organiser for each unit of learning. The organiser includes key information and vocabulary that pupils will need during their lessons. This will be shared with parents and children and referred to throughout the topic for retrieval practice.
The ‘Big’ Question
Each learning sequence will begin with a ‘Big’ question such as ‘How does faith help when things get hard?’ Children are told that the knowledge gained through this topic will help them to raise questions and begin to express their own views in response to the material they learn about and in response to questions about their ideas.
Children will then draw on their knowledge, subject specific vocabulary and own ideas and beliefs to answer this ‘Big’ question.
Support for Pupils with SEND
At the beginning of each unit of work, key pieces of knowledge for the unit are selected and work takes place to ensure that pupils with SEND are retaining and building on this. In addition, scaffolding ensures that pupils can meet the same learning objective as their peers.
Impact
Regular learning sessions show that pupils are confident and able to talk knowledgeably about what they have learned in Religious Education using subject specific vocabulary. The pupil voice discussions show that pupils enjoy RE and can recall their learning and knowledge over time, making links between units of work. Lesson observations also triangulate this.
Work in pupil exercise books demonstrates that Religious Education is taught at a high standard across the school with opportunities for pupils to work at a greater depth. As a result, pupils make sustained progress across both key stages. Work is of high quality, with pride taken and demonstrates pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.