Peatmoor Community Primary School

Our School R.E. forms an integral part of the school’s curriculum and the life of our school and is taught in all year groups, from Reception to year 6 on a weekly basis. We aim to provide our children with:

• A developing knowledge and understanding of the several faith based religions and the nature of these beliefs and practices. 

• A developing awareness of the spiritual dimension of life and the presence of God.

• Opportunities to develop positive attitudes, values and consistent patterns of behaviour.

• A developing and growing responsibility:

• For themselves and their own actions.

• For the needs of others.

• For the environment in which they live.

• Opportunities to explore a range of religious beliefs and practices and to lay foundations of knowledge about other world faiths. The Agreed Syllabus that Peatmoor Community Primary School follows also introduces the idea of non-religious belief systems that people may choose to follow.

The principal aim of RE at Peatmoor Community Primary School is to engage children into systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address. This will enable our children to develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.

R.E. will:

• Start from the pupil’s own perspective and create space within learning in which the pupil’s knowledge, ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs and spirituality are recognised and articulated.

• Develop the pupils’ use of language, reinforcing and introducing them to linguistic tools which will enable them to learn to think critically and express their developing ideas, values, beliefs and spirituality.

• Be taught through three strands: Believing, Expressing and Living.  The intricacies of the religious and non-religious belief systems will be explored through these strands.  Belief systems will be compared and contrasted to further deepen the children’s thinking.

• Be enjoyable, encourage a love of learning and a desire to engage in lifelong learning.

• Be taught in a cross-curricular way where appropriate and linked to class topics. E.g. Roman gods, Egyptian gods, African beliefs (also linked to Global Dimensions). Artefacts are used to support and enhance learning.

Pupils will have the opportunity to:

• Build in-depth knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and practices of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Humanism.  There will be the opportunity to have encounters with other religions.

• Focus and reflect critically on a range of visions, wisdom and truth claims belonging to the belief systems.
• Explore right and wrong, morality and ethics, within religion and human experience. Every effort is made by staff at Peatmoor Community Primary School to work alongside parents and carers, in order to embed the above in every child.

• Develop their own creativity and spirituality, and an appreciation of the creativity and spirituality of others. Children are taught about, and learn from the diverse world we live in. This is done by taking children on school trips to, e.g. religious buildings, festivals and inviting various people from different religions and customs into school. Every child is taught (through RE and PSHE) to think critically and question what they hear and see.

• Develop their own perspectives, conclusions and responses to the issues raised by religion and human experience.

Skills

Our teaching must stimulate curiosity, provoke puzzlement and develop children’s sense of exploration and discovery.  We aim to help children understand that questions in R.E. are in the main contentious, and that worthwhile questions in R.E. will seldom simply be answered by facts.  In R.E. we aim to develop a classroom where inquiry is the norm – children are encouraged to look for alternative possibilities and to be open-minded and flexible in their thinking.  We aim to teach children to think for themselves, become reflective learners and draw their own conclusions.

A broad and secure base of skills which underpins the ability to think, reason, reflect and articulate ideas, which is applicable to the whole curriculum, is vital in giving children access to good religious education.  These skills are cumulative across the key stages and include:

• Investigation
• Interpretation
• Analysis and evaluation
• Synthesis
• Application
• Communication

Attitudes

In R.E. the following attitudes will be developed:

• Sense of self worth
• Respect for others
• Readiness to look beyond surface impressions
• Explore disagreement without prejudice
• Recognition of bids and prejudice within oneself
• Activity listen to views of others
• Empathy for others
• Exploration to seek answers
• Helping through team work
• Reflection
• Curiosity
• Tolerance

Assemblies and Collective Worship

The children participate in whole school and Key Stage Collective Worship through daily Assemblies.  They are taught a variety of values which are inherent in the belief systems they learn about in R.E.  This allows the children’s religious learning to be taken outside of their R.E. lessons and implemented into their daily life.

Subject Coordinator

Our Subject Coordinator keeps up to date with the changes in the RE syllabus and attends all Network Meetings to ensure new ideas are taken on board.