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>> RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
“Differences were meant not to divide but to enrich”
J. H. Oldham
Intent:
Through the teaching of RE at Park Lane Primary School, we aim for children to gain a deeper sense of self-knowledge, moral courage and a capacity for imaginative sympathy for others. Our provision of RE following the Coventry and Warwickshire syllabus enables all children to aspire to high achievement, by providing a curriculum that is engaging, challenging and inclusive for all.
The purpose of RE at Park Lane is to pose and survey answers to deeply relevant questions that individuals and groups, from religious and non-religious worldviews, pursue in their search for meaning, purpose and truth in life.
This process will be achieved through using a multi-disciplinary approach to explore a selection of core concepts that are relevant to most religion and worldviews, at increasing depth.
The desired outcome is that pupils will become aware of their own personal worldview, and what shapes it. Pupils will become increasingly able to hold conversations about their own worldview and those of others. They will be wise interpreters of the knowledge they encounter through exploration of diverse, embodied lived expressions of worldviews.
The main aims of this syllabus are for pupils at Park Lane:
- To know about and understand a range of worldviews, both religious and non-religious, recognising both similarities and differences as part of study.
- To be familiar with possible answers to deep questions about self, others, the world and the possibility of a deity, drawn from a range of case studies from religion and worldviews.
- To become increasingly confident in the main disciplines of theology, philosophy and human and social sciences, and their associated tools and methods, to allow for rich academic study of religion and worldviews to take place.
- To have the time and space to reflect upon their own personal worldview and the personal knowledge they bring to RE lessons, considering what they might learn from religion and worldviews encountered and how these, in turn, might shape their own worldview.
The RE curriculum is delivered through three disciplines:
- Theology
- Philosophy
- Human and Social Sciences
History is also a discipline in some units. This multi-disciplinary approach ensures that our pupils receive a rich and balanced diet of RE and worldviews.
Implementation:
Park Lane Primary School has adopted the local SACRE RE syllabus. This was launched in September 2024, and is an innovative and pioneering approach to the teaching of RE.
The syllabus is structured around seven core concepts, repeatedly encountered as part of a spiral curriculum where these concepts are revisited from the different angles provided by:
- case studies from a range of religions and worldviews
- different ‘ways of knowing’ about religion and worldviews through the methods and tools of disciplines of study
- the additional perspectives that come with age and maturity as pupils move through the education system. These seven concepts are relevant to all worldviews, including individual, communal and organised worldviews.
The seven core concepts are:
- Belonging and Believing
- Wisdom and Guidance
- Personal Responsibility
- Living Well
- Authority and Power
- Changes
- Grand Narratives
Learning in Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and Key Stage One (KS1) is deliberately focused on stories and the exploration of familiar examples of embodied religion and worldviews, such as the celebration of festivals or the significance of bodily rituals. These are drawn from a range of religion and worldviews. RE in the EYFS focuses on just three of the seven concepts, allowing pupils to explore these concepts in depth.
In KS1, three more concepts are added, exploring these through worldviews case studies that illustrate familiar themes, such as festivals and celebrations, sources of wisdom and the types of thinking that leads to choices about how people choose to act and live.
From lower Key Stage Two (KS2) onwards, pupils engage with increasingly sophisticated enquiry questions drawing upon a range of disciplines and a diverse range of case studies drawn from religious and non-religious worldviews. They may look at familiar stories and rituals from different angles and will begin to see the similarities in the worldviews people inhabit, as well as the key differences that lead to such diversity and nuance. They will have a deeper sense of worldviews as embodied and expressive of what people do and how they act as much as they are about what people think and believe. The concept of peace and reconciliation is opened up to include perspectives from worldviews other than Christian worldviews.
In upper KS2, pupils are challenged to think deeply as they encounter some of the problematic and challenging aspects of religion and worldviews, beginning to understand how organised worldviews are also dynamic and change over time in the same way that personal and communal worldviews do.
The teaching of RE takes into account and makes use of the local context. We benefit from working with the local Anglican church, and the history and work of Coventry Cathedral is drawn upon at various stages. The use of case studies enables pupils to explore lived expressions of embodied religions and worldviews.
Impact:
The RE syllabus is designed to show progression and development of disciplinary knowledge and skills, preparing children well for secondary school. Children at Park Lane make good or better than expected progress in this subject. The impact of this progress is measured in the following ways:
- Teachers make formative assessments throughout the teaching of RE.
- Pupils complete Worldview Checkpoints at various points during a sequence of learning, which gives them opportunities to reflect on the development of their own personal knowledge.
- At the end of each unit teachers complete a summative assessment, based on pupils’ understanding of the unit key question.
- Children demonstrate and articulate respect and tolerance for the beliefs and values of others.