Religious Education (RE)

Religious education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. This revised agreed syllabus develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, religious traditions and world views that can provide questions and stimulate discussion to consider answers to such questions. The curriculum presents religious Education within a framework of three disciplines: theology, philosophy and human and social science.

At Hollesley and Waldringfield Partnership, Religious Education is presented as a blend of academic disciplines, in particular theology, human and social science, and philosophy, and that, applied to learning in RE, these provide a balanced picture of religions and worldviews, which in turn leads to better religious literacy.

At Hollesley and Waldringfield Partnership the Religious Education curriculum is planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. The development and progression of skills and knowledge identifies the learning about to happen and a summary of what has already been learned. These retrieval links help teachers remind pupils of their previous learning as well as identifying what personal knowledge they bring to the new learning.

It is the intention of Hollesley and Waldringfield Partnership that Religious Education enables children to investigate and reflect on what it means to have faith, whilst developing knowledge and understanding of major world faiths. We aim to provide children with an opportunity to learn about religion and secular beliefs and to discuss theological and philosophical ideas about these, as well as how these ideas relate to others.

We use the revised Emmanuel Project resources to plan and deliver lessons. Through a variety of creative and practical activities, we teach the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to engage pupils in learning about and from different faiths and nonfaith groups.

Learning is developed through an enquiry cycle in which pupils:

• Engage with the key concept in their own lives / world

• Enquire into an aspect of a faith which relates to the key concept

• Explore a [faith] understanding of the key concept

• Evaluate and Express their learning about the key concept

• Extend by responding to the ‘big question’ for the term.

The School’s Religious Education curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression and build on and embed skills. Progress is defined by the children knowing more and remembering more. We measure this through the following methods:

• What we observe – learning walks and drop ins

• What the pupils say – Pupil discussions/interviews with pupils about their learning

• What the children produce – pupil outcomes including double page spreads, book work, photos, knowledge organisers etc.

The process will also include:

• Reflective discussions with staff and feedback;

• A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes.