Plymtree Church of England Primary School

Our Intent, Implementation and Impact for Religious Education

Intent

At Plymtree Primary School, we have designed our Religious Education (RE) curriculum with the intent that our children will become resilient, accepting, mindful and inquisitive learners. Our RE curriculum allows children to discover and gain an insight into religions within the world that we live. We see the teaching of RE as vital for children to understand others beliefs and make connections between their own values. It is our role to ensure pupils are being inquisitive by asking questions about the world around them by allowing pupils to gain high quality experiences.  

We will deliver a curriculum that:

• Celebrates religious diversity and appreciates the many different faiths throughout the world.
• Inspires creative learning through excellent teaching practices that build on prior RE learning and allow for repetition and progression of skills that build upon high starting points.
• Our curriculum is inclusive, acknowledging the community in which it is situated, but also making extra efforts to visit places of worship such as a mosque and inviting visitors into school from diverse religious backgrounds. 
• Our curriculum develops self-confidence and identifies that all our children are unique and therefore we should all be tolerant of each other’s beliefs.
• Encourages our children to be inquisitive about others beliefs developing inquiry based RE skills that allow them to culturally aware of the world around them. 
• Promotes equality and understanding of the British values and ensures they are prepared for life in modern Britain.

Our curriculum drivers aim to:

• Develop reading by reading quality texts about cultural stories to the children.
• Encourage mathematics across the curriculum by looking at populations of different religions both countywide and across the countries of the United Kingdom.
• Continue our enquiry-based learning approach by ensuring each topic has a ‘big’ question which is broken down into smaller enquiries within each lesson.
• Develop IT skills by researching appropriate people, religions or symbols.
• Understand the bigger questions in life and theology by questioning how faith can help when times are hard as well as developing tolerance of other faiths, beliefs and backgrounds.

Implementation

The RE curriculum is led and overseen by our subject leader who will monitor, evaluate, review and celebrate good practice.

• Our school uses the Devon and Torbay Agreed Syllabus for RE as a basis for our curriculum. 
• One religion is studied at a time (systematic units), building on the learning by comparing religions, beliefs and practises.
• 3 core elements are:

Making sense of beliefs – understanding what these beliefs mean within their traditions

Making connections – establishing relationships between these beliefs and pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the world.

Understanding impact – pupils examine how and why people put beliefs into action within their everyday lives, their community and wider world.

• Religions studied are – Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Humanism and Christianity.
• KS1 (Years 1 and 2) – Christianity is studied and two other principal religions
• KS2 (Years 3 to 6) – Christianity is studied and four other religions
• Early Years Foundation Stage (Reception) - To prepare children for learning about a wide range of religions, this cohort focuses on the theme of 'discovery'; this spans an understanding of who God is to Christians and the way in which Christian’s celebrate  Easter and Christmas, before an exploration of special people, places and stories. Early links are made between the different places and stories that are special to people of different religions. Most of all, there is a focus on creating a sense of wonder and curiosity that carries on into their KS1 and KS2 Religious Education.

• RE Lessons will build upon prior learning and develop skills year upon year.

In addition:

• The RE subject leader will be given training and the opportunity to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding, so they can support curriculum development and their colleagues throughout the school.
• Assessment of RE will be in line with the whole school feedback policy. Teachers will assess progress and attainment of RE using the support of low stakes quizzes as well as considering the discussions that have taken place within whole class lessons.

Impact

At Plymtree School, we would love for our children to leave our setting having a strong awareness of themselves and their beliefs as well as ensuring that they have a strong awareness of the world around them.

They will:

• Have a stronger awareness of the world around them and will be mindful of the beliefs of others.
• Feel they are valued as individuals and that their beliefs are valued and celebrated.
• Enjoy the RE curriculum as it will have promoted creativity, achievement, confidence and inquisitive minds. 
• Feel safe to learn new things and share their beliefs with others in an accepting environment.
• Leave the school with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.