RE
Subject Leader: Nicola Grimwood
Intent
The principal aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. At Little Bowden Primary School, we believe all children learn and achieve, regardless of gender, ethnicity or ability. We aim to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life. We aim to promote their self-esteem and emotional well-being and to help them form and maintain worthwhile and satisfying relationships, based on respect for themselves and others.
Implementation
At Little Bowden, RE is taught in accordance with the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. We have 3 core strands that run through our Religious Education curriculum. Each strand has a progression in knowledge, understanding and skills:
• Making sense of our beliefs - Identifying and making sense of core religious and
non-religious beliefs and concepts; understanding what these beliefs mean
within their traditions; recognising how and why sources of authority (such as
texts) are used, expressed and interpreted in different ways, and developing
skills of interpretation.
• Understanding and impact - Examining how and why people put their beliefs
into action in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their
communities and in the wider world.
• Making connections - Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting the beliefs and
practices studied; allowing pupils to challenge ideas studied, and the ideas
studied to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between
these and pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the world.
Our curriculum is enriched with experiences which celebrate the opportunities in our local area. Each year group focuses on Christianity with the opportunity for pupils to learn about and evaluate their own views on this and other world religions.
At KS1 pupils study primarily Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldviews. Our KS2 pupils study primarily Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldviews. Every pupil has an entitlement to religious education, our KS1 children have 36 hours of religious education teaching and KS2, 45 hours of tuition per year.
Impact
Teaching R.E. makes a significant contribution to pupils’ academic and personal development. It also plays a key role in promoting social cohesion and the virtues of respect and empathy, which are important in our diverse society. We want the R.E. curriculum to impact on the children in the following ways:
o To deepen their reflection on questions of meaning, offering their own
thoughtful and informed insights into religious and non-religious views of
life’s meaning and purpose.
o To help them explore fundamental questions of beliefs and values in
relation to a range of contemporary issues.
o To consider their own beliefs, values and attitudes and become more
tolerant of the beliefs, values, and attitudes of others.
o To consider religious perspectives on contemporary social and moral issues.
o To equip our pupils with strong skills to consider issues of community
cohesion, diversity, and religious understanding.
o To contribute significantly to pupils’ academic progress and their personal
development.
Little Bowden school follows the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE 2021 - 2026
