Scholes (Holmfirth) Junior and Infants Religious Education Curriculum
Statement
Staff Responsible: Mrs V. Capewell
Introduction
This document outlines the purpose, nature and management of the teaching and learning of Religious Education (RE) in our school. The implementation of the subject is the responsibility of all staff in school and will be monitored by the SLT and subject leader(s). An action plan is linked to this curriculum area to develop the subject within our changing school.
The Nature of RE
Religion and beliefs inform our values and are reflected in what we say and how we behave. RE is an important subject, developing an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society.
Religious education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong, and what it means to be human. It can develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, of other principal religions, other religious traditions and worldviews that offer answers to questions such as these.
RE also contributes to pupils’ personal development and well-being and to community cohesion by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. RE can also make important contributions to other parts of the school curriculum such as citizenship, personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE education), the humanities, education for sustainable development and others. It offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development, deepening the understanding of the significance of religion in the lives of others –individually, communally, and cross-culturally.
Intent
The curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils:
A. Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so that they can:
• describe, explain, and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals;
• identify, investigate, and respond to questions posed, and responses offered by some of the sources of wisdom* found in religions and worldviews;
• appreciate and appraise the nature, significance, and impact of diverse ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.
B. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so that they can:
• explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities;
• express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues;
• appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion or a worldview.
C. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews, so that they can:
• find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, responding creatively;
• enquire into what enables different individuals and communities to live together respectfully for the wellbeing of all;
• articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly in order to explain why they may be important in their own and other people’s lives.
Through our CLEAR intent, we ensure that learning is planned thoroughly around the distinct needs of children at Scholes School.
Communicative
We aspire for our children to be able to articulate their beliefs and opinions. In RE, lessons are driven through the development of oracy skills and their expansion and use of technical vocabulary. Through this they show knowledge and conceptual understanding.
This is demonstrated through:
Questioning by teachers and pupils
Partner and group discussions
Explaining and evaluating through verbal and written work
Vocabulary used by teachers and pupils
In RE, we ensure that pupils reflect on, and have a good understanding of technical vocabulary, taught in previous year groups within every unit. This ensures that pupils have a solid vocabulary and knowledge base on which to build. Pupils can then progress by learning and applying the new vocabulary from within the unit, whilst using the previously gained knowledge also.
Local
At Scholes, the children are vastly white British with many children either from atheist or Christian backgrounds. Due to this, we draw upon the richness of our wider surrounding area to ensure our children experience a more varied and broader viewpoint to reflect the multi-faith country of England. The RE syllabus that we teach has been designed by the four local councils in West Yorkshire: Kirklees Council, Calderdale Council, City of Bradford Metropolitan Council and Leeds City Council. It is designed to ensure that the syllabus reflects the diversity of West Yorkshire.
Where possible, we use the local area for RE visits.
In Year 1, we visit the local chapel across the road.
In Year 2, we visit a mosque in Huddersfield??
In Year 6, we visit the holocaust museum at Huddersfield University linked to our history topic.
Enriched
Our RE curriculum provides children with opportunities and experiences that they would not necessarily have access to away from school. These opportunities allow the children to discover, deepen, discuss, and compare key elements of the six main religions and link them to values of people with no religion. Most of our children are from homes with no religious background or Christianity. At Scholes, we encourage children to understand and seek the opinions of others to ensure that they are upholding the British Values of Respect, Tolerance, and Individual Liberty.
Ambitious
At Scholes, all areas of our RE curriculum are ambitious for all children. The RE curriculum is adapted, designed, and developed to meet the needs of pupils with SEND (Special Education Needs and Disability), developing their knowledge and skills to apply their knowledge and make links between different belief systems. Work is differentiated as appropriate to pupils’ needs, and is designed to be challenging for all children, but support is there for them to experience success. Lesson activities are centred around learning and discussion and therefore all children can access the lessons. Children with communication and interaction needs are supported through simple language links, communication specific techniques, e.g., Makaton/communication books, and adult support.
Remembered
The RE units within the syllabus are designed to create a spiral curriculum where children begin by looking at their own thoughts and beliefs, then learn about the opinions and beliefs of others and compare those with their own. This continues to build as each religion is learned about multiple times to deepen their understanding. Each unit makes links back to previous learning and teachers use this as a starting point for each unit to recap on previous learning. Each unit has an assessment activity suggested for teachers to use to assess their pupils understanding and skills in that area.
Implementation
Organisation and Planning –
RE at Scholes J&I is taught according to the year group planning from the Believing and Belonging Syllabus . There are links to other subjects across the curriculum – please see cross-curricular links section.
RE is taught through a variety of activities, such as visual, e.g., watching videos of religious people, visiting places of worship; practical, e.g., drama and handling RE artefacts and objects; and discussion-based activities.
Staff plan using the whole-school medium-term planning format – the requirement of this is that there is an objective for the session along with an outline of the session. The school requires no particular level of shortterm planning as this is the responsibility of teaching staff to determine themselves. Staff are free to include the level of detail on their medium-term planning which they find sufficient for themselves to teach (or another member of staff to teach in the event of absence).
See our EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) policy for information on how our early years curriculum is delivered.
Continuity and Progression
Class teachers plan the subjects for their year group and then, as part of Key Stage teams and the work of subject leaders, ensure that there is progression across the team. The subject leader ensures there is clarity within the curriculum across school. This is then built into the long-term plan for school. The class teacher, with key stage partners, will ensure that the statutory objectives from the National Curriculum have been covered. The subject leader will ensure that all objectives have been taught by the end of each key stage.
Cross Curricular Links
There are several natural links with RE across the curriculum – teachers at Scholes School make these links where necessary and appropriate to focus on the desired learning objective.
Examples of links are as follows:
There is a big crossover from the teaching of RE and the learning in PSHE. Both are about children being understanding of diversity, tolerance, and equality.
History – when teaching elements of WW2 in Y6, children are learning about the persecution of the Jewish faith in Europe.
Where possible, teachers work together to create opportunities for children to work with other year groups to celebrate different religious festivals across the year.
Teachers are encouraged to be creative in their delivery to provide:
appropriate challenge for all abilities;
a variety of learning tasks;
opportunities for discovery;
correction of misconceptions;
appropriate assessment – predominantly formative activities.
Resources
School has a range of physical resources for RE to support the teaching of different religions. These are kept in the ‘Alice’ storeroom/loft space. Some digital resources are also provided within the planning units for each year group. A full list of resources and their locations can be obtained from the RE lead.
Inclusion
Teachers set high expectations for all pupils. They will use appropriate assessment to plan challenging work for all groups, where appropriate, including:
• More able pupils
• Pupils with low prior attainment
• Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Pupils with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability)
• Pupils with English as an additional language (EAL (English as an Additional Language)
Teachers will plan lessons so that pupils with SEND and/or disabilities can study every subject, wherever possible, and ensure that there are no barriers to every pupil achieving. Teachers will also take account of the needs of pupils whose first language is not English. Lessons will be planned so that teaching opportunities help pupils to develop their English, and to support pupils to take part in all subjects.
Further information can be found in our statement of equality information and objectives, and in our SEN policy and information report.
Health and Safety
The children’s and adults’ health and safety is always considered within every lesson. If the activities planned involve risk, e.g., trip/visit, use of candles, etc. a risk assessment will be carried out to ensure that all precautions are taken to reduce any risks.
Impact
Recording and Assessment –
There is no requirement for there to be a written outcome for each lesson. This can be decided upon by the class teacher. We would like the focus for the lessons to be around discussion. Class teachers will record a summary of learning in whole class floor books that will follow the children through their time at Scholes School.
Evidence within these books could be photographs, pupil voice, examples of any written work (other children’s work can be filed away in work folders), etc.
Monitoring
Monitoring of RE at Scholes School is carried out in a variety of ways. These include:
Pupil voice – discussing key learning points with the children to check on learning and content coverage.
Work scrutiny – Looking at class floor books and any other elements of written work produced.
Observations where appropriate – these are usually linked to SIP requirements or Performance Management objectives
Peer observations are encouraged for staff to explore teaching styles and activities in a less formal way than observation