RE

Curriculum intent

We believe that it is important for all our pupils to learn from and about religion, so they can understand the world around them.

Our RE lessons are intended to offer a broad and rich RE curriculum to allow for coverage of the areas prescribed; to allow for a variety of ways for children to explore religions, their community and personal development and wellbeing.

The lessons have an intention of providing a high quality, coherent and progressive experience of the subject, with scope for cross-curricular learning.

Through each unit, children will know about and understand a range of religions and world views. They will be able to identify, investigate and respond to a variety of issues. Spiritual moral social and cultural development, personal growth and community cohesion are featured throughout each strand and are there to ensure opportunities for children to develop positive attitudes and values and to reflect on and relate their learning in RE to their own experiences.

The intent is to make sure that children understand the relevance of RE in today’s modern world and how it affects our lives.

Implementation

Strong Christian values are at the heart of our work and central to the ethos of the school’s teaching and learning.

At St Nicolas we follow the Oxford Diocese RE Curriculum and Understanding Christianity. RE is an opportunity to explore, in depth,  the beliefs, values and attitudes that guide us throughout life.

Our Christian values are respect, honesty, love and friendship, peace, thankfulness and courage. These form a foundation for our RE study. Our Christian values are upheld by daily collective worship. We have a strong link with St Nicolas’ Church and the ‘Open the Book’ team bring Bible stories to life weekly.

Our RE curriculum is designed to engage and enthuse learners. Through their weekly RE lessons, children are able to develop skills and knowledge in the following areas:

Beliefs and teachings

Rituals, ceremonies and lifestyles

How beliefs are expressed

Personal growth

Religious values

Impact

Through their learning in RE, the children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world, developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life.

Children are able to make connections between differing aspects of religion and consider the different forms of religious expression.  They consider the beliefs, teachings, practices and ways of life central to each religion.  They learn about sacred texts and other sources and consider their meanings.  They begin to recognise diversity in religion, learning about similarities and differences, both within and between religious beliefs and the importance of dialogue between them. They extend the range and their use of specialist vocabulary.  They recognise the challenges involved in distinguishing between ideas of right and wrong, valuing what is good and true.  They communicate their ideas, recognising other people’s viewpoints.  They consider their own beliefs and values together with those of others in the light of their learning in religious education. 

Work is underway to add more detail about the skills and knowledge we teach in EYFS to our progression map. Watch this space!