Intent
At Newbold Church School, Religious Education (RE) enables every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness, helping them to have respect and dignity in order to live well together today and in the future.
Newbold Church School uses the Kapow Primary’s Religion and worldviews curriculum and aims to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. We aim to ensure that our RE curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through the scheme, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to
challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views.
Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in our progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their
positionality in relation to their learning . By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their
personal worldviews.
By using Kapow Primary’s RE scheme of work, the RE lessons at Newbold Church School enable pupils to meet the government guidance, which states that RE must reflect that ‘the religious traditions in Great Britain are, in the main, Christian while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’.
Implementation
RE at our school is a core subject, giving it a prominent and important role in the lives of all our pupils. Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021), our RE lessons have three strands running through them :
✔ 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. Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences.
Our Teaching of Religious Education follows a 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. This can be seen in the Religion and worldviews: Progression of knowledge and skills.
Children begin to 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?
A more specific, focused enquiry question frames the learning across each unit. Both the ‘big questions’ and the focused enquiry question will allow children to explore the content they are studying, make comparisons and links within and across religions and worldviews, and explore their personal views.
Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hands-on, allowing children to learn and record their thoughts, answers and ideas in various ways. In each lesson, children will participate in activities involving disciplinary and substantive concepts, developing their knowledge and
understanding of diverse religions and worldviews.
Teaching staff are expected to adapt the learning for every lesson to ensure that all pupils can access lessons, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. Knowledge organisers support pupils in developing conceptual knowledge and schemata by summarising the key concepts covered in a unit and linking these to examples covered.
The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum used to support the teaching of RE at Newbold Church School emphasises the importance of diverse representations within and across religions and worldviews, focusing on real people’s lived experiences of their beliefs.
The classroom offers a place of security within which difficult and risky questions can be tackled within a safe context. Children learn to appraise the value of wisdom from different sources and to express their insights in response and to agree or disagree respectfully. Teaching will equip pupils with knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and world views which will enable children to develop their ideas, values and identities.
Our RE teaching and learning promotes the pupil’s SMSC by :
- Developing their ability to be reflective about their own beliefs and perspective on life.
- Having a knowledge of and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values.
- Being willing to reflect on their own experiences.
- Learning about themselves, others and the wider world in imaginative and creative ways.
- Recognising the difference between right and wrong, applying this to their lives.
- Appreciating the viewpoints of others in regard to ethical issues.
- Engaging and cooperating effectively with people from a diverse range of belief systems.
- developing a mutual respect and tolerance with those of different beliefs and faiths
- Understanding the wide range of cultural influences in their heritage and that of those around them, appreciating the things we have in common.
- Participating and responding positively to creative, artistic and musical opportunities.
- Exploring and celebrating cultural diversity locally, nationally and globally.
The Church of England education office gives the following aims for Church Schools:
- 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.
- To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied.
- To engage with challenging questions about the meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
- To 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.
- To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.
Impact
The impact of our RE curriculum is constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, that are used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment.
Pupils at Newbold Church School are equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They are 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 are enquiring learners who ask questions and make connections. They are confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.
Children at Newbold Church School will:
● Know and understand religious concepts relating to beliefs, practices,
community and belonging, and wisdom and guidance.
● Develop an understanding of the influence of organised and personal worldviews on individuals, communities, countries and globally.
● Understand some of the ways religions and worldviews are studied (disciplinary knowledge).
● Develop understanding of their relationship with the content studied, being able to talk about their assumptions and preconceptions (personal knowledge).
● Build secure vocabulary which allows them to talk confidently and fluently about their learning.
● Answer questions about worldviews through an enquiry-based approach including investigating, interpreting, evaluating, applying and expressing.
● Talk about the similarities and differences between their own and others beliefs with respect and open mindedness.
● Understand the lived experiences of religious and non-religious worldviews to be diverse within and between people and communities.
● Develop an understanding of the ways in which personal and organised worldviews may develop and change across time and place.