Religious Education (RE) is a subject which develops our understanding of the world’s religions.

Leader: Shane Fitzgibbon

Intent

At Frimley, we are focused on developing the whole child and through our curriculum and school values (respect, responsibility, perseverance, honesty, collaboration and love) we encourage children to be worldly citizens. Our Religious Education (RE) curriculum supports this.

Through RE, we aim to provide the children with an opportunity to explore issues which are happening in the wider world and to develop an understanding of and the ability to form relationships with people from a huge variety of backgrounds. We are a Church of England school with Christian values and an open-minded approach to Religious Education. We encourage children to question and explore philosophical issues and want them to be able to make reasoned, informed and creative responses to religious and moral issues.

The RE curriculum aims to build children’s awareness and understanding of various religions, how beliefs impact the way of life for followers and how views, beliefs and practices compare to their own. Understanding traditions, beliefs and different ways of expressing spirituality is a way of giving our children choices and the chance to develop their own ideas, beliefs and values. Learning about religion and culture will help our children to be tolerant and respectful.

                 

Implementation

• We use a mastery-based curriculum that is progressive and broken into modules.
• Teachers deploy the Rosenshine principles to support the teaching and learning process: reviews of previous learning, new information is presented in small steps, high-level questioning, carefully-considered models, guided practice, checks for pupil understanding, obtainment of a high success rate, scaffolds for difficult tasks, opportunities for independent practice and reviews of learning over extended periods. 
• Children extend their knowledge of Christianity, Judaism and Islam from Key Stage 1, and are introduced to aspects of Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism as well as Humanism, recognising the impact of religion and belief locally, nationally and globally.
• We also acknowledge that Religious Education encompasses some difficult concepts that are not easily explained and consider the non-religious perspective.  
• As we are a Church of England School, we follow the Surrey Agreed Syllabus for RE, which reflects the needs of Surrey.
• Units are organised around a subsumer in the form of an enquiry-based question and follow the enquiry cycle (Question, Investigate, Interpret, Evaluate and conclude, Communicate) when answering RE questions.
• Three golden threads – God, Community and Identity – run through each RE unit and of work and support the planning of questioning and assessment in each unit. 
• Through the curriculum, children are engaged in various activities in order to develop their understanding of religion and spirituality, in order to learn about and from religions. 
• Regular retrieval opportunities are mapped out to continually build on children’s historical knowledge and skills.
• At Frimley, we try to make the Religious Education lessons exciting and creative through a variety of different activities including art, conscience alley, freeze frames, storyboards etc.
• Lessons will provide opportunities for children to make connections to a big picture or previous learning, to encounter new knowledge and skills, to demonstrate understanding by applying new knowledge and skills and to consolidate their learning. 
• Where meaningful, links are made to other subjects such as art, history and computing to enable the development of further transferable skills and cross-curricular learning.
• We welcome chances to give children first hand experiences to build community links and explore all faiths through making links with local Synagogues, Mosques and Temples or inviting visitors of different faiths to our school.
• We are supported by two local Parish Churches and receive guidance on our Religious Education curriculum from the Guildford Diocese.
• All children from the school are involved in Harvest, Christmas and Easter services at, or with input from, one of the local churches and Year 6 pupils attend the leavers’ service at Guildford Cathedral.
• We have artefact boxes and the children can handle religious objects related to the faith they are studying.
• Our lessons are active, creative and engaging with opportunities for both quiet reflection and exciting debate.
• RE lessons are usually taught weekly although some units (when appropriate) are taught in blocks to enable children to explore the religion/ideas more deeply and to then respond to the learning in a creative manner. 
• End of unit assessments are used to assess the children’s understanding of crucial content; this informs future teaching and areas of focus for retrieval.
• Children have the opportunity to apply to be part of the Worship team – those selected have the opportunity to take a more active role in collective worship and to participate in various extra-curricular activities.
• Links to careers in RE are made to show how children’s learning links to the wider world of work.
• As well as learning walks to observe teaching and learning, the Book Study approach is used to monitor the effectiveness of the RE curriculum, teaching and learning, to identify strengths and areas for development in provision and to garner pupil voice.

 

                                            

Impact

Children will:

• Leave Frimley with an understanding of Christianity: key beliefs, teachings and Bible stories and an understanding of the religions and beliefs within their local community and world wide.

• Be able to discuss and debate ‘big questions’ constructively and show consideration and tolerance of a wide range of viewpoints including those that are different to their own.
• Show awe and wonder as they discover and analyse their beliefs/ideas and the beliefs of others.
• Encounter memorable experiences that enhance their understanding of the various religions they learn about.
• Be able to express their beliefs and the beliefs of others in a range of practical and creative ways.
• Possess the critical thinking skills required to be able to analyse their own beliefs and the beliefs of others.
• Possess the tools and skills required to support their own spiritual development.
• Show tolerance and respect towards people who have different cultures and beliefs to their own.
• Make connections between key teachings, beliefs and way of life for different religions.
• Be able to reflect on their learning and its impact on them both verbally and through writing.
• Demonstrate a secure understanding of a unit’s crucial learning, skills and knowledge in the end of unit assessment.
• Understand how their learning in RE links to the wider world of work.
• Meet the relevant end of key stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for RE at the end of Key stage 2.