Religous Education (RE)
At Greenlands Primary School all children, including those who are disadvantaged and children who have SEND learn subject specific concepts.
Why is RE important?
Religious education assists students in forming values and beliefs that are reflected in behaviours and communication.
Our approach allows children’s critical thinking skills to be developed, and their knowledge and understanding of, and empathy with people and their beliefs, religious or otherwise, to be enhanced. In turn this promotes children’s understanding of the principles of’ the Rule of Law’, ‘Individual Liberty’ and ‘Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those with different faiths or beliefs.’
This approach takes very seriously the philosophy that children are free to make their own choices and decisions concerning religion and belief. RE does not try to persuade but rather to inform and develop the skills with which evaluation can take place.
At Greenlands, we use the Discovery Scheme of work for RE.
National Curriculum Purpose of Study
Religous education enables children's critical thinking skills to be developed, and their knowledge and understanding of, and empathy with people and their beliefs, religious or otherwise, to be enhanced. In turn this promotes children’s understanding of the principles of’ the Rule of Law’, ‘Individual Liberty’ and ‘Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those with different faiths or beliefs.’
What RE looks like at Greenlands
Knowledge and Skills have been arranged within subject specific themes. Our RE curriculum focuses on critical thinking skills, on personal reflection into the child’s own thoughts and feelings, on growing subject knowledge and nurturing spiritual development. It is taught using an enquiry based approach and there is an enquiry question for every term, this provides the focus for the topic and gives the children the opportunity to apply the knowledge they have learnt, and to develop their critical thinking and evaluation skills.
Christianity is taught in every year group which enables children to understand the core beliefs of Christianity and the concepts that underpin the religion, alongside this, one of the other five principle religions is taught per year. Vocabulary for each topic is identified and explicitly taught to address the recognised ‘word gap’ that exists for many of the children that attend Greenlands Primary School. The continued revision of whole school concepts and subject specific themes, alongside regular revisiting of previous learning will enable children to know more and remember more.
Concepts and themes running through RE
- Thinking about religion and belief
- Enquiring, investigating and interpreting
- Beliefs and teachings (what people believe)
- Practices and lifestyles (what people do)
- Expression and language (how people express themselves)
- Identity and experience (making sense of who we are)
- Meaning and purpose (making sense of life)
- Values and commitments (making sense of right and wrong)
- Christianity
- Judaism
- Hinduism
- Islam
- Sikhism
- Buddhism
Whole school overview
EYFS
Children begin to explore the world of religion in terms of special people, books, times, places and objects. They listen to and talk about stories. They are introduced to religious words where appropriate and use their senses in exploring religions and beliefs, practices and forms of expression. They reflect on their own feelings and experiences. They use their imagination and curiosity to develop their appreciation and wonder of the world in which they live and try to answer big questions e.g. what makes people special?
Key Stage 1
Year 1
In year one children learn about Christianity and Judaism. They explore the following themes: the creation story, Christmas, Jesus as a friend, Easter, Shabbat and Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. They begin their exploration into the concepts of God, creation, incarnation, and salvation.
Year 2
In year two children build on their knowledge about Christianity and learn about Islam. They explore the following themes: what did Jesus teach? Christmas-Jesus as a gift from God, prayer at home, Easter-resurrection, community and belonging, and Hajj. They begin their exploration into the concept of Gospel and continue their learning around the concept of incarnation.
Key Stage 2
Year 3
In year three children build on their knowledge about Christianity, and learn about Sikhism. They explore the themes of: the Amrit Ceremony and the Khalsa. They build on their understanding of the concepts of incarnation and salvation from KS1.
Year 4
In year four children build on their knowledge about Christianity and learn about Buddhism. They explore the themes of: Buddha’s teachings, Christmas, The 8-fold path, Easter and prayer and worship. They deepen their understanding of the concepts of incarnation and salvation.
Year 5
In year five children build on their knowledge about Christianity and learn about Hinduism. They explore the themes of: prayer and worship, Christmas, Hindu beliefs, Easter, beliefs and moral values, and beliefs and practices. They continue to deepen, and reflect upon the concepts of incarnation and salvation.
Year 6
In year six children build on their knowledge about Christianity and Islam. Children will have already studied Islam in year two but in year six children will study Islam for the whole of the summer term. Children look at the complex issues surrounding the study of Islam. Children need the time to study the religion of Islam in a fair and balanced way, so that we are giving a clear and balanced picture perhaps to counteract some of the media attention.
