R.E in School

RE Intent

At Southfield, we encourage children’s curiosity and interests in a range of religious beliefs and practices, by providing them with the knowledge and skills they need to embrace and respect the diverse global community they live in. Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It promotes respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging, through self-awareness and reflection. The principle aim of RE is to engage pupils in an enquiry approach where they can develop an understanding and appreciation for the expression of beliefs, cultural practices and influence of religions and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community.

The key aims for religious education are to ensure that all pupils:

1. Know about and understand a range of religions and world views

2. Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews

3. Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldview

RE Implementation

At Southfield, we encourage our children to share their own religious beliefs and values, as well as ask questions about their beliefs and that of others through open and honest discussions. We provide our children with the opportunity to think and learn about equality and acceptance in the world they live; locally and globally which encourages our children to be respectful and compassionate of the beliefs and values of others, through understanding their traditions and practices.

We promote an enquiry-based approach through the implementation of the Swindon Agreed Syllabus for RE. It is taught as both explicit lessons, using the Swindon Agreed Syllabus; but it is also embedded in other areas of the curriculum. The key questions within the scheme, end of key stage outcomes and content are delivered through the three strands.

1. Believing

2. Expressing

3. Living

The principal aim of RE is to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.

Experiences and enrichment opportunities at Southfield Junior school;

· handling sacred artefacts

· exploring sacred texts

· using drama to express feelings and ideas

· responding to images, stories, art, music and dance

· meeting visitors from local religious communities

· making visits to religious places of worship where possible, and where not, making use of videos and the internet

· taking part in whole school events (multi-faith days, Easter, Harvest Festival, school performances)

· participating in moments of quiet reflection

· using ICT to further explore religion and belief globally

· comparing religions through discussion

· debating and communicating religious belief, worldviews and philosophical ideas and answering and asking ultimate questions posed by these

RE Impact

By the end of their RE journey at Southfield the children will have enhanced awareness and understanding of religious beliefs, teachings and practices. This will provide the means to celebrate the diversity of our school community. Our children will have a greater understanding of the positive image of people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history.

Our RE curriculum will have developed our pupils’ religious vocabulary allowing them to interpret symbolism in a variety of forms. Our children will have developed spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to promote and realise a better understanding of themselves and others. They will have had the opportunity to develop an understanding of the challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world.

Summative assessments are used to determine the children’s understanding and inform teacher’s planning to ensure further differentiated support is available for pupils. The impact of our RE curriculum is also sought directly from the pupils as questionnaires are used to gather pupils voice on this subject and together with summative assessment, action can be taken to further develop the RE curriculum.