St Clement's Church of
England Primary School
Religious Education
Intent
As a Church of England School, the Christian faith is at the heart of everything that we do at St Clement’s. In all learning and life experiences, we aim to fulfil our school vision. We promote an environment where all children feel known, accepted and valued as individuals, within a caring community, where our Christian faith affects not only what we teach, but also how we teach. We believe that it is fundamental for the children to belong to a safe and nurturing community, founded on strong Christian values where children will develop a wide range of skills that will enable them to make their own positive contribution to our global society. Religious Education is a core subject at St Clement’s and is held in very high regard by staff and pupils alike. Separate to our worship programme, our R.E curriculum is strongly based on asking ‘Big Questions’ about all faiths, and links factual knowledge of religious beliefs with a deeper understanding of how these beliefs inform people’s day to day lives in the modern world.
Our aims for all the children in RE are:
- To provoke challenging questions about the ultimate meaning of life, beliefs about God, the nature of reality and morality.
- To develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal world religions, religious traditions and world-views, which offer answers to ultimate questions.
- To encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging, in order to flourish within communities, as responsible citizens in society and global communities.
- To teach pupils to develop respect for others and their beliefs and helps to challenge prejudice.
- To prompt pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to wider society encouraging empathy, generosity and compassion.
- To develop their understanding of the ways in which beliefs influence people in their behaviour, practices and outlook.
Using the ‘Understanding Christianity’ syllabus as a base, children learn about the Bible as a whole; the Old and New Testament, the stories, the ideas and the impact these have on Christians today. Other faiths including Sikhism, Islam and Judaism are also explored in RE lessons.
Implementation
At St Clement’s we plan for a weekly lesson of RE into the curriculum, according to the Understanding Christianity documents and World Faiths allocated by the Kent Agreed Syllabus. Units of learning in RE are carefully mapped across each year group to ensure that children build on prior knowledge and are able to find opportunities to make connections between different areas of learning as well as developing a range of enquiry and critical thinking skills.
We endeavour to provide the children with high quality lessons to inspire discussion and provide writing opportunities within RE.
Throughout the teaching of RE we encourage the children to:
- discuss and share their understanding, as well as question one another about the meanings of religious texts.
- respond to religious works of art through a range of art, individual and whole class.
- participate in drama-based activities including retelling, hot seating and conscience alley.
- Involve themselves in enquiry led approaches to learning, with written and practical work demonstrating the children’s responses to questions and discussions.
Throughout each unit of learning, we aim to enrich the cultural capital of all pupils, particularly those from less advantaged backgrounds, through our choices of text and other resources, visits and visitors, vocabulary development and use of technology.
We encourage the children to share from their experiences however limited they may be, considering the catchment area of the school.
Each term we take part in a Spirited Arts Day with a specific focus, for example: Art work linked to our school story Joseph’s colourful coat, Jessie Tree Art, Music linked to our school story are some of the most recent examples.