Religious Education

RE at St John and St Francis Church School

Subject Lead – Mrs Dawn Marriott

Rationale:

Through the teaching of RE, our vision at St John and St Francis Church School is to create lifelong learners who are confident and caring, have wisdom and respect for themselves and others with faith to follow their chosen path.

Our teaching is based on a Church of England resource ‘Understanding Christianity’ and the Somerset agreed syllabus for RE, ‘Awareness, Mystery and Value’ to create a broad picture of UK religions.

We believe that Religious Education can assist pupils in learning about and understanding the nature of religion and in aiding their quest for meaning and purpose. It can help children to understand what it means to take a religion seriously.

Whilst providing positive nurture, religious education helps children to develop their own beliefs, attitudes, and values. It contributes to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking 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.

In RE, they learn about and from religions and worldviews in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. They learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response, and to agree or disagree respectfully. Teaching therefore should equip pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, enabling them to develop their ideas, values, and identities. It should develop in pupils an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in our society with its diverse religions and worldviews. They learn to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values, and experiences while respecting the right of others to differ.

To support the teaching and learning of Christianity, we follow the theological concepts and guidance set out in the Church of England’s resource, ‘Understanding Christianity’ ensuring there is knowledge of Christianity as a living world faith. We will also follow the programmes of study and curriculum guidance set out in the agreed syllabus ‘Awareness, Mystery and Value.’

In KS1, children will also study Judaism and in KS2, children will study Judaism, Hinduism and Islam, with some reference to other faiths such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Humanism. Within these units, children have the opportunity to have a go at the core learning as well as digging deeper.

Assessment:

Each term, RE is assessed alongside other subjects using Scholar Pack. Staff carry out a pre and post unit activity in order to make a judgement on each child’s understanding of the RE concepts they have experienced. The RE lead then uses this data to inform their monitoring of planning and teaching and learning.

RE Whole School Curriculum Overview