R.E
Intent
At St. Philip’s, RE is at the heart of our curriculum and is underpinned by our Christian values. We aim to equip children with the knowledge and experience to become respectful, self-aware and open-minded members of our contemporary society in line with our British Values.
Aims of the curriculum:
- To learn about Christianity as a living faith and understand that Christians can express their faith in a variety of different ways.
- To learn about other principal religions practiced in the United Kingdom, their traditions and how their followers express their beliefs.
- To develop learners’ own spirituality by asking big questions and providing opportunity for personal reflection.
- To encourage critical thinkers who can talk in a balanced and confident manner about religion but also about what it means to them and how it impacts their lives and the lives of others.
- To promote courageous advocacy amongst our pupils by linking the teaching of RE to issues within our local, national and global communities.
Implementation
At St. Philip’s, we follow the Blackburn Diocese syllabus of work and use the Understanding Christianity resources. Lessons are planned and delivered around this scheme on a weekly basis by class teachers. Each unit of work will focus on a ‘big question’ that each child will work toward answering. Long term planning ensures that each year, children’s learning builds on what they have been previously taught.
This scheme of work has two primary focusses:
- That children learn about different religions. For example, they will learn about a specific religious story or person.
- That children then interpret and learn from what they have found out via personal reflection and explain the impact that this learning has on them. They may also relate their learning to a contemporary wider world context.
In order to implement our religious teaching successfully, we do the following:
- Teach lessons that are varied in their approach and outcome. For example, lessons include a mix of teacher led input, independent inquiry, partner and small group work and the work produced will take many different forms, some examples being artwork, poetry, music, a play script, poster and a letter.
- Use a wide variety of resources in our teaching to support children’s learning e.g. artefacts, videos, music, poetry, art, dance etc.
- Where able, external visits are used to enhance teaching and learning. These could take the form of visits to a place or worship or to engage in courageous advocacy. Visitors are also welcomes into school either in person or over zoom.
- Hold whole school or key stage specific RE days/workshops are held to support specific learning e.g multi-faith day, pop-up prayer day, harvest festival.
- Provide children with a reflection area in each classroom where they can reflect, pray and develop their spirituality.
- Ensure that staff are offered CPD where required and are kept up to date with all relevant curriculum information.
- Monitor each child’s progress half termly against specific assessment statements relating to the unit of work taught. Progress is analysed and monitored termly in order to address any issues that may arise.
Impact
Following the implementation of the RE curriculum, our children will:
- Have a deeper knowledge and understanding of both Christianity and other principal religions.
- Be able to act with empathy, respect and kindness towards people of all religious beliefs and denominations.
- Understand and be able to see the relevance of religious teachings in modern society and how it affects our lives.
- Have an interest in local, national and global issues and display a passion to help those in need.
- Feel safe to share their beliefs and opinions in an accepting environment.
- Feel valued as a member of a community.
- Be able to reflect on their own beliefs and spirituality.
Our Christian Values
At St Philip's, our Christian values are the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). All Children are taught about these values during daily acts of worship and our RE lessons and are encouraged to live out these values on a daily basis.
You can learn more about them by listening to song by clicking our Fruit of the Spirit tree to the left; we like to listen to this in collective worship!
