RE
Curriculum Intent
At St Mary and All Saints CE Primary School, Religious Education (R.E) plays an important role in our curriculum and school life which is taught either weekly or as a block each half-term. R.E. enables our children to explore and question spiritual and religious experience and search for a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose in life and aims to develop religious literacy.
Our RE Curriculum will take pupils on a journey through a range of concepts driven by three core strands: Beliefs and questions, Community and identity and Reality and truth. These strands will create connections between substantive and disciplinary knowledge, and the units will include opportunities for the development of personal knowledge. The aim is to develop curiosity in pupils and equip them for future learning about, as well as enabling them to make sense of, the complex world of religious and non-religious worldviews.
Beliefs and questions will focus on theology, looking at the core beliefs and diverse interpretations of text, symbols and teachings of the chosen religions and worldviews.
Community and identity will focus on Human and Social Science and using data and other sources to examine practices and human expressions of religious and non-religious beliefs.
Reality and truth will focus on philosophy and ethics, looking at how people decide what is true and reliable drawing on the worldviews covered in the other units. It is in these units that pupils will have the opportunity to explore the wider concept of what a worldview is and how people reach these ideas.
Concepts and Disciplines in the Scheme of Work
Our R.E. curriculum is centred around using a termly ‘big question.’ These help to spark the children’s curiosity and give them the opportunity to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. They learn to develop and express their own insights and beliefs in response, and to agree or disagree respectfully with the views and beliefs of others. They will learn about different religious and non-religious beliefs and practices that influence and shape our community and culture today. We aim for a good balance between theology, philosophy and human science. As children progress, they will be able to talk about and understand a range of religions and worldviews which will enable them to explain and analyse beliefs and practises, recognising the diversity which exists within our community. To provide enrichment opportunities alongside our R.E. curriculum, we visit churches [AT1] in our local community to explore the different features and have visits from local clergy to broaden our understanding of church practices.