At Derwent Vale Primary and Nursery School, we are committed to providing all children with learning opportunities to engage in Religious Education and develop their religious literacy and worldwide views. This policy sets out a framework within which teaching and non-teaching staff can work, and gives guidance on planning, teaching and assessment. It has been developed through a process of consultation with school staff and governors.

Intent

We want to ensure that our pupils have an awareness and understanding of the beliefs and cultures within and beyond their community. We strive to equip them with essential skills that will support their enquiry and response to significant questions posed by religion and worldviews. We believe high quality teaching and learning of RE is fundamental to understanding, appreciating and responding to the complex world we live in.

It is very important that our pupils are provided with subject specific knowledge regarding a variety of religions so that they build strong foundations of key concepts, beliefs, practices and vocabulary associated with each. Children start to experience learning about religion in our Early Years Foundation Stage. As they progress through our school, they continue to build on their knowledge and understanding while applying subject specific skills at a deeper level.

Our goal is to be able to build on pupils’ learning at each stage so that as they progress through school they are able to consolidate, develop and deepen their knowledge. By developing pupils’ religious literacy they will be able to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religious and non-religious worldwide views. Pupils will be able to talk about their personal worldwide view. Our ambition for our pupils is that they will build a strong moral compass, a strong cultural capital, broaden their cultural experiences, be able to appreciate and celebrate society’s differences, and cooperate with others as they successfully navigate their own lives beyond our school.

Implementation

RE is taught via a two-year rolling programme due to our mixed year group classes. The Blackburn Scheme of work guides planning. Teachers are role models of inclusivity and acceptance encouraging pupils’ to be respectful and accepting towards people with different religious or non-religious worldviews to their own.

Our goal is to develop our children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in RE and we achieve this through ‘high quality, first-phase teaching’. We believe in whole-class teaching methods and combine these with enquiry-based research activities. We believe children learn best when:

• they have access to, and are able to handle, real objects;
• they go on visits to local churches and other places of interest (such as St Luke’s Church, Clifton);
• they have access to secondary sources, such as books and photographs;
• visitors talk about personal experiences of their beliefs and worldwide views;
• assemblies with religious representatives;
• children are encouraged to use high quality real text;
• they listen to, and interact with, stories from the bible and other religious texts;
• they engage in healthy debate;
• they use drama and dance to act out stories;
• they perform an annual Nativity to our community (EYFS & KS1)
• they perform a Carol Service to our community (KS2)
• they are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer a range of questions;
• they get the opportunity to revisit previous learning.
• ICT supports learning when appropriate.

We are acutely aware of the need to differentiate learning to meet the needs of our pupils. As a result, all children will learn towards achieving the same learning objective, however the resources, input and activities that get them to that goal may differ as and when needed. We ensure that the knowledge, skills and vocabulary taught are appropriate to the age of the children.

Impact

By the end of EYFS, pupils will be prepared for the disciplinary approach, they will have begun to explore religion and worldwide views in terms of special people, times, places, books and objects. Pupils will have been exposed to a variety of religious stories which will have raised interesting questions which they will have explored further. They will have been introduced to specialist words and used their senses when exploring religious beliefs, practices and forms of expression.

By the end of Key Stage 1, pupils will have built upon their foundational knowledge and skills. They will have explored core concepts and theories of Christianity, Judaism and gained knowledge of aspects of other global religions and non-religious worldwide views.

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils will have deepened their knowledge and understanding of core concepts and theories of Christianity, Judaism and been introduced to Hinduism. They will have deepened their knowledge and understanding of aspects of non-religious worldviews and global religions.

All pupils will have gained religious literacy and be able to reflect upon their own worldview.