Our RE Curriculum

 

Intent

At Highweek we follow ‘The Devon and Torbay Agreed Syllabus’ that supports us to coherently plan sequences of lessons to ensure teachers have progressively covered the skills and concepts required for the children’s age range. We aim to provide children opportunities to build their skills to evaluate, reflect and enquire as they learn about different religious and non-religious beliefs and the connections between them.

In EYFS, children will encounter Christianity and other faiths, as part of their growing sense of self, their own community and their place within it. As children move into KS1, they will continue to explore Christianity as well as learning about Jewish and Muslim beliefs.

When the children enter KS2, they continue to build upon their existing knowledge of these faiths while being introduced to Hindu beliefs. Throughout their learning, the children will be exposed to other religious and non-religious world views as they build upon their understanding, allowing them to express their own critical responses and personal reflections.

 

Implementation

Learning about lots of different religions throughout a key stage can be demanding, this is why we focus on no more than four religions, ensuring there is depth to the children’s understanding. Our units of learning allow us to take a flexible approach on when to cover each area so that each unit fits with different religious themes, festivals and the local community events throughout the year.

In order to support children in exploring different beliefs, the agreed syllabus sets out an underlying teaching and learning approach, whereby children encounter core concepts in religions and beliefs in a coherent way, developing their understanding and their ability to handle questions of religion and belief.

Our teaching and learning approach has three core elements, which are woven together to provide breadth and balance, underpinning our aims of RE.

We believe lessons should allow children to make sense of different beliefs by giving opportunities to identify and explore different core religious and non-religious views and concepts. Children will be given opportunities to reflect on how these beliefs compare to their own traditions. This will be achieved by allowing children access to different sources of information such as religious texts, art and world views. Children will be given opportunities to interpret these in different ways, developing their skills of interpretation.

Children will be given opportunities to make connections by evaluating and reflecting on different beliefs and views they have studied. This will allow the children to challenge these ideas as well as each other’s thinking with their own views through their lived experiences and understanding of the world.

Children will be provided opportunities to understand how and why people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways. This will allow them to develop an understanding on how this impacts people’s everyday lives, their communities and the wider world.

 

Impact

The impact of using the full range of resources, educational trips, and visitors will be seen across the school. Children will able to use the skills they have developed to handle questions raised by religion and belief. This will allow them to be more conscientious learners that are able to reflect on their own ideas and ways of living. Children will have extended their knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs, which will expand their ability to use religious vocabulary and interpret religious symbolism in a variety of forms.

Through their understanding of religion, children will show a greater understanding of the differences between themselves and others. This will promote not just tolerance but acceptance of those who are different to themselves.

Children will show an understanding of the importance that religion has to different communities around them.

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Progression of skills

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Syllabus

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