Aims and purposes of Religious Education in the Church school
The principal aim of RE is to enable pupils to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and belief.
Our Religious Education lessons will support our children to:
- Know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs, using an approach that critically engages with biblical text;
- Gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied;
- Engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience;
- Recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places;
- Explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.
Agreed syllabus
As an academy, our governors (LAB) have agreed to follow the Diocese of Peterborough syllabus to deliver the teaching of Religious Education. The teaching of Christianity is at the heart of our RE curriculum and the ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource is used to complement this.
Christianity will be taught for at least 50% of RE lessons. Other faith studied include Hinduism and Judaism. The children may also learn from other religions and non-religious worldviews in thematic units.
Key Concepts
When teaching each of the Understanding Christianity units, the children will learn about 8 big idea, which together, tell the ‘big story’ of the Bible – from Creation to the Kingdom of God. The diagram below shows how these concepts are developed over time from Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3.
The long term plan shows which concepts are taught in each unit of study per year group.
