Vision for RE

Aspiring to be our best with kindness, respect and faith.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10:27

At Great Kingshill Church of England Combined School,  we promote a love of learning with God as our guide in a safe, happy environment. We challenge and support each other to do our best. Our Christian vision is based around the bible story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37) as it resonates with our school values of Love, Courage, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect and Truth and guides us in our vision of ‘Aspiring to be our best with kindness, respect and faith.’ Being a Good Samaritan is at the heart of everything we do at Great Kingshill, and this is also reflected in our school song ‘Would you Walk by on the Other Side’ (Cross Over the Road)

Religious education at Great Kingshill Church of England Combined School aims to enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. (John 10:10). It will help educate for dignity and respect encouraging all to live well together. Religious education (RE) is a highly valued academic subject that enables understanding of how religion and beliefs affect our lives. RE enables pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them to flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society.  It teaches pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs and helps to challenge prejudice. Within our teaching of RE, we seek to encourage empathy, generosity and compassion thus prompting pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and others and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and wider world. RE is an important curriculum subject. It is important in its own right and also makes a unique contribution to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils and supports wider community cohesion. Our school values of Love, Courage, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect and Truth, are rooted in Christian theology. Our vision for education is deeply Christian, with Jesus' promise of 'life in all its fullness' at its heart.

Intent

By building on from Early Years work about understanding the world, we aim to support children to develop their knowledge of different religions and understanding of different worldviews. We support them to develop the skills they need to question, debate, compare and critically assess different answers to ‘big’ human questions. We believe that the skills we equip children with at this age will enable them to go into the world as curious, independent thinkers who are able to appraise and consider any views they are exposed to. We believe that RE should be active, creative and fun. RE provides an opportunity for children to explore and test out different ideas about the world that we are living in. We believe that these opportunities should be clearly rooted in understanding about different religions. This understanding then underpins the children’s confidence to question ideas and make links to their own experiences and opinions. We believe that these opportunities and experiences provide children in our school with the understanding of why RE is relevant to their lives now and how it will continue to be relevant in the future.

Implementation

Great Kingshill is part of the Kings Education Trust (A multi trust academy.)  We deliver RE using the Discovery RE scheme.  Discovery RE brings together learning about and from religion, questioning and spiritual development in a comprehensive scheme of learning. Teaching strategies are varied and are mindful of preferred learning styles and the need for differentiation. Each enquiry starts from the children’s own life experiences using these as a bridge into the investigation of the religion being studied.

Learning is assessed and children have opportunity to express their own thoughts and beliefs and empathise with believers of that religion or belief position.

Reflecting the school’s vision as a Church of England school, our leaders ensure that sufficient dedicated curriculum time is given to RE reflecting the Church of England Statement of Entitlement. Each class has a one hour religious education lesson weekly (sometimes organised as two half hour sessions) Each year group teaches a different unit per half term (see above) with three out of the six units being based upon Christianity.

Content

At Great Kingshill School our RE programme of study is based upon the Discovery RE programme. Discovery RE covers all areas of RE for the primary phase, Christianity plus one other religion is taught in each year group.  The grid below shows specific enquiries for each year group.

Foundation Stage 1/2:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied:
What makes people special?	Christianity, Judaism
What is Christmas	Christianity
How do people celebrate?	Islam/Judaism
What is Easter?	Christianity
What can we learn from stories?	Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism
What makes people special?	Christianity, Islam, Judaism.

 

Year 1:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied:
Does God want Christians to look after the world?	Christianity
What gift might Christians in my town have given Jesus if he had been born here rather than in Bethlehem?	Christianity
Was it always easy for Jesus to show friendship?	Christianity
Why was Jesus welcomed like a king or celebrity on Palm Sunday?	Christianity
Is Shabbat important to Jewish children?	Judaism
Are Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur important to Jewish children?	Judaism

 

Year 2:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied
Is it possible to be kind to everyone all of the time?	Christianity
Why do Christians believe God gave Jesus to the world?	Christianity
How important is it for Jewish people to do what God asks them to do?	Judaism
How important is it to Christians that Jesus came back to life after His crucifixion?	Christianity
Does going to a Mosque gives Muslims a sense of belonging?	Islam
Does completing Hajj make a person a better Muslim?	Islam

 

Year 3:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions Studied
Would celebrating Divali at home and in the community bring a feeling of belonging to a Hindu child?	Hinduism
Has Christmas lost its true meaning?	Christianity
Could Jesus really heal people? Were these miracles or is there some other explanation?	Christianity
What is “good” about Good Friday?	Christianity
Do Sikhs think it is important to share?	Sikhism
Would visiting the River Ganges feel special to a non-Hindu?	Hinduism

 

Year 4:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied
How special is the relationship Jews have with God?	Judaism
What is the most significant part of the nativity story for Christians today?	Christianity
How important is it for Jewish people to do what God asks them to do?	Judaism
Is forgiveness always possible for Christians?	Christianity
What is the best way for a Buddhist to lead a good life?	Buddhism
Do people need to go to church to show they are Christians?	Christianity

 

Year 5:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied
How far would a Sikh go for his/her religion?	Sikhism
Is the Christmas story true?	Christianity
Are Sikh stories important today?	Sikhism
How significant is it for Christians to believe God intend Jesus to die?	Christianity
Do beliefs in Karma, Samsara and Moksha help Hindus lead better lives?	Sikhism
What is the best way for Christian to show commitment to God?	Christianity

 

Year 6:

Discovery Enquiry	Religions studied
What is the best way for a Muslim to show commitment to God?	Islam
How significant is it that Mary is Jesus’ mother?	Christianity
Is anything ever eternal?	Christianity
Is Christianity still a strong religion 2000 years after Jesus was on Earth?	Christianity
Does belief in Akhirah (life after death) help Muslims lead good lives? (Double unit)	Islam

The aims of our RE curriculum

By following Discovery RE at Great Kingshill school we intend that Religious Education will:-

• adopt an enquiry- based approach as recommended by Ofsted, beginning with the children’s own life experience before moving into learning about and from religion.
• provoke challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs, the self, and issues of right and wrong, commitment and belonging. It develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, and religious traditions that examine these questions, fostering personal reflection and spiritual development.
• encourage pupils to explore their own beliefs (religious or non-religious), in the light of what they learn, as they examine issues of religious belief and faith and how these impact on personal, institutional and social ethics; and to express their responses.
• enable pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society.
• teach pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs, and helps to challenge prejudice.

• prompt pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to wider society. It encourages empathy, generosity and compassion.

• develop a sense of awe, wonder and mystery.
• nurture children’s own spiritual development
• Ensure that our Religious Education helps to develop religiously literate pupils as per the 2018 SIAMS inspection framework.

Assessment

Teachers are eager to ensure children are making progress with their learning throughout their RE. Therefore, each enquiry has built-in assessment.  This task is the formal opportunity for teacher assessment of the children’s knowledge of that religion, depth of critical thinking, and ability to answer the enquiry question. This stand-alone evidence is used in conjunction with other evidence such as records of discussions and annotations from other lessons within the enquiry to assist the teacher in assessing whether a child is working at the expected level or towards or beyond it. Children are assessed over three aspects of learning:

• a personal resonance with or reflection on the material/religion being studied to answer the enquiry question.
• knowledge and understanding of the material/religion being studied to answer the enquiry question.
• evaluation/critical thinking in relation to the enquiry question

These are tracked throughout the planning stage so that teachers can utilise the appropriate evidence accordingly. In line with non-statutory guidance issued by the RE Council in 2013, descriptors of these aspects utilise age–related expectations of working towards, working at the expected attainment and working beyond.

Monitoring and evaluation

The RE leader monitors delivery of the programme through observation and discussion with teaching staff, as well as discussions with children and scrutiny of their written work to ensure consistent and coherent curriculum provision.

Evaluation of the programme’s effectiveness is conducted on the basis of:

• Pupil and teacher evaluation of the content and learning processes
• Staff meetings to review and share experience
• Monitoring of assessment to ensure progression throughout the school.
• Lesson observations and book scrutinies

External contributors

RE gives particular opportunities to promote an ethos of respect for others, challenge stereotypes and build understanding of other cultures and beliefs. This contributes to promoting a positive and inclusive school ethos that champions democratic values and human rights.

External contributors from the community, e.g., local clergy, local members/speakers from other religions etc make a valuable contribution to the RE programme as do visits to places of worship.  Their input is carefully planned and monitored so as to fit into and complement the programme.