RE

Becoming Culture Experts

“The highest result of education is tolerance.” – Helen Keller

Intent

Our School Values of ‘Try Hard, Be Brave, Be You’ drive the learning journeys in all curriculum areas.  Our Character Virtues of Curiosity, Honesty, Teamwork and Community Awareness are also threaded through our curriculum.  We have high expectations for all our children to achieve and make progress in their social, emotional, physical, mental health and academic development. We provide an exciting broad, balanced, inclusive and rich curriculum, which is enquiry based, and meets the requirements of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum and the National Curriculum including the needs and aspirations of our children.  We are inclusive in our teaching and we strive to develop and adapt teaching and learning to match children’s differing needs. We aim that all children know and remember more. This includes those with special educational needs and disability and those identified as more able, and/or gifted and talented. Our Curriculum goes beyond the broad statutory aims as we develop children’s cultural capital to show them there is life within and beyond Taverham to which they can make a difference – this is very much part of our Character Education Virtue ‘Community Awareness’. We believe that RE is an integral part of children’s learning which has a positive impact on children’s wellbeing and happiness. We are passionate about providing experiences that all children can access which develop skills, knowledge, appreciation and enjoyment of RE whilst also giving opportunities to express and share their ideas and opinions. We encourage children to understand that there is no right or wrong in RE. We will prioritise subject specific vocabulary development to enable our children to have rich discussions when appreciating RE. Books about RE are available to encourage Reading for Pleasure and enable the children to acquire more knowledge to make links and connections with ideas, opinions, other knowledge, skills and understanding.

We ensure that we cover:

EYFS ELG: People, Culture and Communities

Children at the expected level of development will:

• Describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories, non-fiction texts and maps

• Know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class

• Explain some similarities and differences between life in this country and life in other countries, drawing on knowledge from stories, non-fiction texts and – when appropriate – maps

 National Curriculum KS1 Aims:

• All pupils are entitled to receive RE as part of a broad and balanced curriculum at school which promotes their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It is based on the Local Authority Agreed Syllabus called The Living Difference IV.

Implementation

At Ghost Hill, we aim to provide a high-quality Religious Education for all our pupils following the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019 alongside Jigsaw RE’s scheme of work. The curriculum aims to enable the children to have the knowledge and understanding of sources of wisdom and their impact whilst exploring personal and critical responses. The children explore three key areas of study using the Disciplinary Lenses of: Theology, Philosophy and Human and Social Sciences.  We believe that children should be encouraged to have positive attitudes to diversity and difference so that they learn from an early age to value diversity in others and grow up making a positive contribution to society. 

 We also use ‘key questions’ in our provision. This supports the opportunity for precise teaching of religious education and promotes the opportunity to think and consider key concepts in an open way. At Ghost Hill Infant and Nursery School we choose to cover four religions in KS1, enhancing the expectations of the Norfolk Syllabus for RE (which expects Christianity plus one other). This is to further enhance and enrich their cultural and religious knowledge and therefore tolerance and their own individual choice relating to religion.   In EYFS, teaching and enrichment is focussed on religious festivals taught through direct teaching and enhancements to continuous provision.

Impact

Children across all pupil groups feel confident to express themselves in RE. They can share facts about a variety of faiths. Children make good progress from their starting points and the use of transferrable skills is promoted. They enjoy RE lessons. Children use the knowledge and skills learnt to meet the challenges of the next part of their educational journey and to do so with independence and concentration.

Curriculum Map for Religious Education (RE)

Curriculum map Intent Implementation Impact for R.E

Becoming Culture Experts Vocabulary Map for Religious Education

Right to withdrawal from RE lessons