Religious Education

Intent

At Tubbenden Primary School we encourage children and adults to show respect for religious commitment and the right of others to hold beliefs different from our own. Religious Education helps students to develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally in a way that enables them to understand and value themselves and others and to better cope with the challenges of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. Religious education promotes pupils’ understanding of the multicultural and multifaith society that we live in today by enabling them to explore issues of belief and issues between faiths. Having learned about different faiths and beliefs, pupils are then encouraged to understand how we can interact with each other and explore interfaith issues of contemporary society. At Tubbenden Primary Academy we believe that Religious Education should be an active enquiry process, with wellinformed and balanced discussions where students use a variety of approaches to interpret, analyse, apply and evaluate what they understand about other religions and worldviews. Through enquiry, pupils should build their knowledge and understanding of other religions and worldviews and consider and reflect meaningfully on what they have learnt in order to create an informed view of their own.

Implementation

Tubbenden Primary School has adopted the Bromley Agreed Syllabus, May 2020, for the teaching of RE in KS1 and 2. As stated in the Education Act 1996 the agreed syllabus must ‘reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions and worldwide views represented in Great Britain.’ In order to deliver the programmes of study for each year group, 5% of the curriculum time is given to the teaching of RE, which is taught as discreet lessons following the agreed Bromley RE syllabus.

This broadly equates to:

• 36 hours at Key Stage 1

• 45 hours at Key Stage 2

Where applicable it is also be combined with the creative curriculum. Children are encouraged to play a full part in their learning in RE.

For example:

• as learners, by deploying skills, asking questions and exploring answers

• as individuals, using their own experience and background to reflect on questions of truth and morality and deeper meanings of life and death

• as citizens, promoting debate and dialogue, celebrating diversity, taking appropriate action and putting principles into action. Learning in RE includes: visits to places of worship and significant religious locations, visitors to school to share their knowledge and experience of their religion, handling and using artefacts, ICT, DT drama, dance, music etc.

Children in both Key Stages will experience: -

• Enquiry Learning: Religious Education must be inclusive and relevant to all pupils so that they can consider the Big Questions concerning issues and concepts which relate to themselves and the local community. That learning should be planned around the Big Questions that relate to Thinking, Believing and Living that encourage meaningful conversations that are inclusive and accessible to all pupils. (See model in Appendix 1)

• Coverage of Religions/Worldviews: an RE curriculum ‘reflects the fact that the religious traditions of Great Britain, are in the main, Christian’ whilst including the teaching and practices of the other principle religions and worldviews (including non-religious worldviews) represented in Great Britain, and reflect the make-up of the local community. Schools are further advised to include in their pupils’ learning the additional religions and worldviews where there are adherents in the school community.

Impact

We believe our RE curriculum will support children in developing in spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally. By the time they leave Tubbenden Primary School, we hope that all children will be able to understand and value themselves and others and to better cope with the challenges of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. This syllabus supports the creation of a Religious Education curriculum that enables pupils to develop the academic skills and specialist vocabulary to learn about the beliefs, values and ways of life of others and to reflect upon their own, when considering the question ‘Why are we here?’ The learning is planned and sequenced to support pupils in building an ever-increasing picture over time, constantly extending their knowledge, understanding and vocabulary around concepts of Believing, Living and Thinking. This will in turn enable pupils to investigate, explore and reflect on their own and others’ responses to Big Questions.