RE Curriculum

Intent

At Pepper Hill School, it is our intention that the curriculum for Religious Education (RE) will be meaningful and relevant to children within our community.  We follow the Milton Keynes Agreed Syllabus as a basis for its content and framework.  Our RE curriculum is a key player in engendering knowledge and understanding which can lead to more than tolerance; it will engender true inclusivity and respect for others and their beliefs.

Children will develop a deepening understanding of Christianity and other world religions.  Our curriculum should develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religious traditions and to appreciate the cultural differences in Britain today.  Children will have the opportunity to develop mindfulness, cultivating a sense of awareness in a non-judgmental way in the present moment.  It is our intention to use this approach to build children’s self-awareness and skills of reflection, supporting both RE learning and children’s personal and spiritual development.

By Year 6, children will have developed their enquiry, investigative and research skills to a level which will enable them to make reasoned judgements about religious issues.  Pupils will have the subject knowledge and understanding to develop a personal response to the fundamental questions of life.

Implementation

Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of RE involves the following:

• RE is taught in weekly one-hour lessons.
• Lessons are planned using progression maps provided to teachers to ensure skills are clear.
• Connect 4s are completed at the start of lessons to assess prior knowledge and identify gaps in understanding which can be addressed before moving on.
• Visits organised to different places of worship.
• Each religion has a topic box with religious texts, significant items, and specialist books to enhance learning.
• Enquiry questions answered at the end of each topic.
• Each unit follows the same structure; introduction to enquiry question, a focus on at least three different religions, answering the enquiry question.
• CPD Insets provided to teachers to ensure high quality subject knowledge.
• RE display within school highlighting significant key events within the RE calendar.
• Harvest festival celebrated annually with a different focus each year.
• Regular assemblies highlighting key religious events, such as Eid, Chinese New Year and Easter.

Impact

Our RE curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression year on year. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods: 

• Answering the key question before and after learning the knowledge to assess progress
• Monitoring of books
• Pupil voice
• Learning walks
• Staff surveys