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Religion and Worldviews
curriculum vision on a page re 2 .pdf
Intent
Children develop their own thinking and their understanding of Christianity, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. Children explore the significant theological concepts within Christianity as part of developing their wider religious, theological and cultural literacy. This includes ‘big’ or ultimate questions.
In addition, we learn about other religions and world views. We want our children to flourish by preparing them for the diverse landscape of modern Britain; welcoming those of all faiths or none with respect. Beliefs about the existence, nature and activity of God are central to many religious traditions, especially Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They form the foundation beliefs of a number of faiths and result in particular kinds of response, such as prayer, worship and ethical conduct, which is believed to be in line with the will of God.
Our teaching of Religion and Worldviews supports children to live out our vision, shining their light by becoming confident, reflective, spiritual and morally aware people who can play a role in shaping modern Britain.
Implementation
We use the Kent Agreed Syllabus to plan our teaching and coverage of Religion and Worldviews and we use Understanding Christianity and NATRE resources for our planning and teaching of Christianity. Children develop their own thinking and their understanding of Christianity, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it.
In Reception and Key Stage One, children will encounter a range of World Faith Stories, including the exploration of Christianity and Judaism, faith stories from Islam and an introduction to Humanism. In Key Stage Two, children will also encounter Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam and Humanism. See our RE curriculum overview for more details.
See below for Kent syllabus overview:
Religion and Worldviews is taught weekly in all classes, hourly in Key Stage One, and 90 minutes in Key Stage Two.
To ensure our curriculum is accessible to all of our children, we use a range of adaptive teaching strategies which are outlined below.
adaptive teaching strategies re final.pdf
Long Term Plan
See below for Kent syllabus overview:
As demonstrated in the above Syllabus overview, we strive to ensure our children are exposed to a range of faiths and world views throughout their time in school. Children learn about these faiths and world views in earlier years and then revisit them in future years to ensure depth and breadth of coverage. Furthermore, we encourage weekly reflections at the end of each lesson to encourage our children to make links between faiths and world views and their own perspectives.
Progression of Skills & Knowledge
Early Years (Reception): Children begin by exploring simple concepts about God and world faiths. They learn through stories and experiences that gives them early exposure to different cultures and beliefs.
Key Stage 1 (Years 1–2): Children start to ask the big questions about religion and world views and begin to explore religious practices and symbols, through the lens of key figures and stories and ideas from religions such as Christianity and Islam.
Key Stage 2 (Years 3–6): Children deepen their prior learning by comparing different religions, exploring moral and ethical questions in practice, and reflecting on their own views. This allows them to think critically while also having understanding and empathy for those who do not share their beliefs.
We revisit key themes and concepts, allowing our children to build a deeper understanding of the religious and non-religious worldviews they are exposed to.
Curriculum Policy
Subject in Action
Adaptive Teaching Toolkit
adaptive teaching strategies re final.pdf
Adaptive teaching in Practice
Take a look below at our gallery of adaptive teaching strategies used in our teaching of Religion and Worldviews to ensure all children get the best outcomes in their learning.
Enrichment Opportunities
Regular enrichment opportunities in the teaching of Religion and Worldviews ensures our children can fully immerse themselves in their learning and provides memorable opportunities to support them in building a deeper understanding of the faiths and world views.
At SMATT, we ensure that every year group has a minimum of one trip or workshop per year group during Religion and Worldviews. Some enrichment opportunities we have carried out most recently are:
- Visits from and to the Nasir Mosque for Years 2 and 5
- A visit to the Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara in Year 3
- A visit from Humanist speaker Luke Donellan in Year 3
- A visit to the Hindu temple in Year 4
- Visits from the Bible Explorers in Years 5 and 6
Additionally, we have a strong relationship with the Family Trust who carry out workshops across the school to support the teaching of key Christian calendar events such as Easter and facilitate a free after school club to enable our children to explore Christianity in more depth, in a fun way.
Our partnership with St Margaret's Church and the Rochester Baptist Church, and our close proximity to historic Rochester and the Cathedral means we are privileged to have a wealth of resources to support our children in their learning of Christianity.
Impact
An important aim of Religion and Worldviews is that children are encouraged to reflect on their learning and make their own decisions about what they believe. This helps children understand that religion still influences and sustains many people in the world today, and to consider the wisdom of faith traditions, and reflect on what they might take from it.
We believe that the values underpinning Religion and Worldviews enables our children to become confident, reflective, spiritual and morally aware people who can shine their light by playing their role in shaping modern Britain.
Through regular assessment, we review questions at the start of a topic, teach the topic for the term, and then assess what the children now know.
Take a look below at an example of our 'Start of unit Review' compared with the 'Post Unit Review' demonstrating the progress made.
y5 pre and post review example.pdf
Pupil Voice
Religion and Worldviews has a high profile within our school curriculum and is comparable with other core curriculum areas.
Useful Links for Parents and Pupils
An outline of the statutory requirements for the teaching of RE:Legal Requirements and Withdrawal
Religions of the World
Animated BBC films to teach 3-7 year olds about different religions:
My Life, My Religion
Short BBC films for 7-11 year olds featuring children from 5 of the world’s major religions:
BBC Bitesize 7-11 year olds can find out about different religions and non-religious worldviews through BBC Bitesize:
True Tube
A series of films suitable for pupils aged 7-11 on a variety of topics such as a History of Islam in 10 minutes, the Easter story in 3 parts, a day in the life of a vicar, Bar and Bat Mitzvah, visits to places of worship in the Holy Cribs series and much much more.
Humanists UK
A collection of links and guidance to support parents with explaining the Humanist world view.