Religious Education
Intent
At Salisbury
Manor Primary, we believe that it is vital for all our pupils to learn from and
about religion, so that they can understand the world around them. Through Religious
Education, pupils develop their knowledge of the world faiths, and their
understanding and awareness of the beliefs of others. This also contributes to
their developing knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes, which are
necessary for their self-fulfilment and their development as active and
responsible citizens.
We
acknowledge our moral responsibility in this role supporting our pupils to
develop into rounded individuals capable of understanding different religions
in society and varying points of view. We strive to support pupils to
leave our school in year 6 being culturally aware of their local community, the
region they live in and with wider world religions and beliefs.
We
encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their
own beliefs, values and experiences. Our curriculum is enhanced
further with trips to places of worship in our local area. We also welcome
guest speakers from different religions and walks of life into our school to
allow the children to learn about different faiths first-hand and to build
connections.
We
believe that RE makes an important contribution to our school’s determination
to promote community cohesion. It provides a key context to develop young
people’s understanding and appreciation of diversity, to promote shared values
and to challenge racism and discrimination. Salisbury Manor Primary believes
that effective RE will promote community cohesion in the school community, the
community within which the school is located, the UK community and the global
community’.
Implementation
Teachers follow
and adapt the PlanBee Condensed RE curriculum. As part of their planning, they
also provide the children with a knowledge organiser which outlines knowledge
(including vocabulary) all children must master for that unit of Religious
Education.
A
cycle of lessons for Religious Education, which carefully plans for progression
and depth, including exit tickets to ensure clear understanding and time to
revisit if not. Use of retrieval practices to ensure knowledge is learnt and
stored in the long term memory.
Learning
about religion includes enquiry into and investigation of the nature of
religious faith, its key beliefs and teachings, practices, their impact on the
lives of believers and communities and the varying ways in which these are
expressed. It also includes the skills of
interpretation, analysis and explanation. Pupils learn to communicate
their knowledge and understanding using specialist vocabulary. Learning
from religion is concerned with developing pupils' reflection on,
engagement with and response to their own and others' experiences and their
learning about religious faith. It develops pupils' skills of
application, interpretation and evaluation of what they learn about
religion. Pupils learn to develop and communicate their own ideas, particularly
in relation to questions of identity, belonging, meaning, purpose,
truth, values and commitments. In teaching RE, it is vital that the
skills are developed through the knowledge and understanding, and vice-versa.
It is also important that pupils understand how their learning in RE is
progressing, and what they need to do to improve it
Impact
Our
Religious Education Curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned
to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum,
they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure
the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
§ A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes for
Religious Education;
§ A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression
across the school;
§ Pupil discussions about their learning;
In our RE
programme children are challenged in their thought process to
acknowledge, accept and understand different religions and ways
of thinking. By visiting different places of worship, handling different
artefacts, being immersed in culture, food, singing, dancing, festivals
children will build up not only a tolerance but a deep respect for our
community and the wider world we live in.
In Waltham
Forest this is important to widen horizons leading to stronger community
cohesion. It is our vision and mission to open children's eyes to
the vibrancy and wonder of the world around them. By the time
children leave us in Year 6 we want them to have developed a love of
culture and a curiosity to develop this in year 7 by having the discussion
and thinking skills to consider other points of view that are differing to
their own.