LHPS RE Curriculum Design

Guiding Principles

We want our children to Appreciate, Aspire and Achieve. We are committed to providing a RE curriculum designed to teach and equip our children with the knowledge, skills and understanding of a range of religions and world views so that they can express ideas and have an insight about the nature, significance and impact of world religions.

Core Beliefs

Appreciate

Aspire

Achieve

A RE curriculum that develops every child’s ability to appreciate, care, respect and understand themselves, others and the world in which they live. A curriculum that also ensures that every child feels valued and cared for.

A RE curriculum that provides a range of opportunities, designed to empower every child to ‘dream big’ and develop a sense of what is possible for them to achieve now and in their future lives.

A RE curriculum that ensures all children have the skills, knowledge, attitude and social understanding to achieve in all aspects of their lives and equip them to become active and engaged citizens.

Curriculum Approach

Our mastery approach to lesson design is based upon our strong knowledge of pedagogy and our understanding of our children’s needs. This ensures that each lesson maximises both learning and our core beliefs of Appreciate, Aspire and Achieve.

Lessons are expertly designed to develop children’s mastery of R.E. This is through an enquiry based approach, which enables pupils to be aware of a variety of responses to the question – What does it mean to be human?

Children develop their enquiry skills through asking questions and develop a sense of wonder about the world, using their imagination. They talk about what is important to them and others, valuing themselves, reflecting on their own feelings and experiences and developing a sense of belonging.

RE is largely taught in mixed ability groups as we believe all children can achieve. Using this approach, all children are exposed to some higher-level thinking questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life; beliefs about God; the self and nature of reality; issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human as well as having the opportunity to collaborate and develop a growth mind-set through working with peers. Children have opportunities and are taught to work both collaboratively and independently.

Teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in RE. All staff use a reflective approach to each lesson to evaluate learning and to plan next steps for all children. Through live marking and feedback teachers are able to assess the teaching of RE to develop progression of the children’s RE skills.

In the Foundation Stage, children begin to explore the world of religion in terms of: special people, books, festivals and celebrations, places and objects. They reflect on their own feelings and experiences and use their imagination and curiosity to develop their appreciation and wonder of the world in which they live.

In Key Stage 1, children respond to a range of stories, artefacts and other religious materials. They recognise that beliefs about what is important to people are expressed in a variety of ways and begin to use specialist vocabulary.

In Key Stage 2, children develop their skills of enquiry into the key question 'What is it to be human?' They consider the beliefs, teachings, practices, celebrations and lifestyles central to religion. They communicate their ideas, recognising other people’s viewpoints. They consider their own beliefs and values and those of others in the light of their learning in RE.

Alongside our curriculum we make time for religious celebrations relevant to the children of our school such as: Harvest, Christmas, Diwali and Easter.

We provide high quality professional development to ensure that we are always improving the quality of our teaching so that this impacts upon children’s learning.

R.E is taught in discrete lessons, ensuring understanding and developing a love of the subject. Where appropriate connections between subjects are made in deepening this understanding.

Effective questioning is a crucial component of all our lessons. Key questions are planned to encourage children to think about their learning, to reflect upon previous learning and to make connections between new and existing knowledge. We also encourage them to build upon their peer’s understanding.

The school’s values of respect, responsibility, perseverance, honesty and sharing are embedded within the curriculum to empower our children to develop character.

Impact

Children’s knowledge, understanding and progress across all subject areas as well as their desire and ability to learn will be measured using a range of qualitative and quantitative strategies including: information from book scrutiny, performance data measured from starting point, lesson observations, drop ins, all stakeholder voice, collaborative research, use of external critical friends and self / peer evaluation.

By the time a pupil leaves Lunt’s Heath Primary School in Year 6, they will have the essential knowledge needed to be confident educated young people who are sufficiently confident in their own beliefs and values that they can respect the religious and cultural differences of others and contribute to a cohesive and compassionate society.