RE

Subject Leader: Hannah Jones

Our Religious Education (RE) curriculum includes a variety of units of different religions and world faiths to support pupils understanding, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities. As a school we use the Understanding Christianity scheme alongside the Diocese of Canterbury planning to deliver our curriculum.

The RE curriculum begins with teaching fundamental concepts about God, religion and world views in Early Years and KS1. This understanding is developed further in KS2 allowing the children to discuss challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.

Progression Narrative

We aim to deliver a rich and varied Religious Education curriculum at Charing CE Primary School that seeks to enable our learners to become aware of their own beliefs and values and to develop a positive attitude towards people who hold religious beliefs or views different from their own. 

Intent

We intend to deliver high-quality teaching and learning opportunities that inspire all children to develop their religious literacy, being able to hold a balanced and informed conversation about religion and beliefs. Lessons are planned and delivered in a variety of ways to ensure that all children can access the learning.  Through a predominantly Christian curriculum, we aim to support pupils in developing their understanding of Christianity and other principal world religions, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. 

We encourage learners to consider the ways in which a person’s beliefs influence their behaviour and practices and apply these insights to their own lives and communities. Children are encouraged to explore questions arising from the study of all religions and share their own ideas, experiences and beliefs so as to promote their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Implementation

We have implemented a spiral curriculum using the Understanding Christianity materials, allowing children to revisit the Christian concepts of Creation, Incarnation, Salvation, God, Gospel, People of God and Kingdom of God throughout their time at school. The children also learn about Islam and Judaism in both KS1 and KS2, revisiting and building on their previous knowledge. Hinduism and Sikhism are also taught in KS2 as an introduction for further study in KS3. This follows the guidance from the Diocese of Canterbury long term planning.

The teaching of RE is supported by our local church community, with visits to the church building and visitors in school, and wider experiences, such as visiting Canterbury Cathedral.

Religious Education is taught on a weekly basis. Each unit has a key question and teachers may develop their own key questions based on the unit guidance provided by Understanding Christianity or the Diocese of Canterbury, allowing links with other subject areas where appropriate. Interactive, practical activities encourage the children to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions. The children are encouraged to relate the learning to their own lives, and share their understanding using a ‘mirrors, windows and doors’ approach to each strand of learning within RE.

Impact