Religious education (RE)
Why Teach RE at Oughton Primary and Nursery School?
‘RE lessons give a key and unique contribution to understanding British Heritage.’
The world is shrinking as people now travel further, meet people from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. Technology also connects us to others around the world. Children need to embrace the changing world around them, understand and respect the beliefs and backgrounds of the people they will meet throughout their lives and develop their own set of beliefs and values.
RE is a statutory subject and we at Oughton Primary and Nursery School strive to provide the children with a broad and balanced RE curriculum that is meaningful and thought- provoking.
Our RE lessons should be engaging, ignite the imagination and give the children plenty to think about. Studying sacred stories, exploring artefacts, symbols and art, whilst spotting similarities and differences, meeting people from our community, visiting places of worship and debating ‘big’ questions help the children to become well-informed and thoughtful citizens.
Our Intent
As in all subjects, we aim to fulfil our school vision. In doing so, we aim to provide a progressive and sequenced curriculum evidenced by the learning intentions in our medium term planning and knowledge sheets. We promote an environment where all children feel known, accepted and valued as individuals in a caring environment.
Our aims for all children in RE are:
Implementation Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021), we chose the Kapow scheme that follows three strands running through it:
✔ Substantive knowledge (conceptual and worldviews related).
✔ Disciplinary knowledge.
✔ Personal knowledge.
These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children’s conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses (ways of knowing). Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences.
The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts.
In EYFS, children begin to talk about the beliefs of their immediate family and community, recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. They listen to religious and modern day stories and compare and contrast characters, including figures from the past. Children develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity. This will support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.
Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’ which will be revisited throughout key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts. These ‘big questions’ are:
Why are we here?
Why do worldviews change?
What is religion?
How can worldviews be expressed?
How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?
Impact
The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment.
After the implementation of the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum, pupils will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way. They will be curious learners who ask questions and make connections, confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.
‘RE lessons give a key and unique contribution to understanding British Heritage.’
The world is shrinking as people now travel further, meet people from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds. Technology also connects us to others around the world. Children need to embrace the changing world around them, understand and respect the beliefs and backgrounds of the people they will meet throughout their lives and develop their own set of beliefs and values.
RE is a statutory subject and we at Oughton Primary and Nursery School strive to provide the children with a broad and balanced RE curriculum that is meaningful and thought- provoking.
Our RE lessons should be engaging, ignite the imagination and give the children plenty to think about. Studying sacred stories, exploring artefacts, symbols and art, whilst spotting similarities and differences, meeting people from our community, visiting places of worship and debating ‘big’ questions help the children to become well-informed and thoughtful citizens.
Our Intent
As in all subjects, we aim to fulfil our school vision. In doing so, we aim to provide a progressive and sequenced curriculum evidenced by the learning intentions in our medium term planning and knowledge sheets. We promote an environment where all children feel known, accepted and valued as individuals in a caring environment.
Our aims for all children in RE are:
- To develop child’s knowledge and understanding of the six main world religions, religious traditions and views, which offer answers to ultimate questions.
- To encourage children to develop their sense of identity and belonging, in order to flourish within communities as responsible citizens.
- To teach children to develop respect for others and their beliefs and help to challenge prejudice.
- Ask and offer possible answers to challenging questions about the meaning of life, beliefs.
- Have a secure understanding and knowledge of the religions studied and be confident to answer questions.
- Have a sense of self-identity and belong to flourish within the community and be responsible citizens.
- Show respect, tolerance, and understanding of all religions and beliefs.
- Have a strong understanding of how beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion come together.
Implementation Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021), we chose the Kapow scheme that follows three strands running through it:
✔ Substantive knowledge (conceptual and worldviews related).
✔ Disciplinary knowledge.
✔ Personal knowledge.
These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children’s conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses (ways of knowing). Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences.
The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts.
In EYFS, children begin to talk about the beliefs of their immediate family and community, recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. They listen to religious and modern day stories and compare and contrast characters, including figures from the past. Children develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity. This will support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.
Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’ which will be revisited throughout key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts. These ‘big questions’ are:
Why are we here?
Why do worldviews change?
What is religion?
How can worldviews be expressed?
How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?
Impact
The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment.
After the implementation of the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum, pupils will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way. They will be curious learners who ask questions and make connections, confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.
| Religion and Worldview Curriculum Overview- |