Spring Meadow Infant and Nursery
RE Curriculum
Intent
At Spring Meadow we aim to ensure our religious education curriculum is fully inclusive of every child, empowering each one to become knowledgeable and inquisitive in the subject. Religious education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It supports wider community cohesion, promotes respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. The principle aim of RE curriculum 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 principle religions and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community.
The key aims of our RE curriculum are reflected in the two attainment targets.
Attainment Target 1- Learning about religion and belief
Attainment target 2- Learning from religion and belief
Our curriculum prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions and world views represented in the United Kingdom. Our children develop an understanding of the influence of the beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures and the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious issues. Throughout the RE curriculum pupils should be encouraged to explore religions, engage with their knowledge, and reflect on their learning and their lives.
Implementation
Religious Education is unique in the school curriculum in that it is neither a core nor a foundation subject. However it is the intent of Spring Meadow that Religious Education promotes an enquiry-based approach through the implementation of the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2018. The core knowledge based approach focuses on 4 key skills; engagement, investigation, evaluation and expression.
Children within Early Years Foundation Stage will cover a variety of religions linking them to their own experiences and others. They will be thinking about special people, Christmas, celebrations, Easter, story time and special places. During Key Stage 1, pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through religion and belief as well as wider learning themes. They are introduced to Christianity and other principle religions and can reflect on prior learning as they progress through the units.
Learning about religion and belief
Children are taught to recall and name different beliefs and practices, including festivals, worships, rituals and ways of life, in order to find out about the meanings behind them. Children look at Christianity, Islam, Humanism, Judaism and Sikhism in Key Stage 1. Children will use artefacts, texts, undertake their own research, visit places of worship and talk to those of a variety of faiths to understand beliefs and practices of these faiths.
Learning from religion and belief
Children are taught to retell and suggest meanings to some religious and moral stories, exploring and discussing sacred writings and sources of wisdom and recognising the traditions from which they come. Children look at a variety of stories and talk about what messages there are that might be considered wise and look at how these messages could apply to their own lives.
Impact
The key knowledge, skills and language are revisited throughout children’s learning using mini plenaries, key assessment questioning and recaps to allow teachers to be responsive to the children’s learning. At the end of a unit of work, our children’s accumulated religious education knowledge is assessed which may take the form of quizzes linked to the core knowledge or a written task or historical investigation. The RE subject leader monitors the teaching and learning of RE throughout the year through learning walks, outcome scrutinies and discussions with children from across the school to find out what they have learnt about and from RE. This evaluation of the teaching and learning of RE within the school informs them of next steps to be taken in further raising standards in RE.
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, understand and apply skills related to the two attainment targets and learning themes embedded with the Cambridgeshire Agreed Syllabus. This will prepare them for the next stage of their learning in Key Stage 2 and help develop them as individuals who are both curious and tolerant to the various faiths that are in their community and in the wider world.
