RE at Grenoside Community Primary School 

Statement of Intent for RE

The intent of our RE curriculum is to help all of our pupils to gain a deeper understanding of the world they live in and the different people in it. We want the children to have knowledge of and respect for different faiths as well as for people without a religious faith. We believe all children should have the opportunity to develop their natural curiosity for the world and gain a rich cultural capital that will help them to successfully work and socialise with people they meet in the future.  Our curriculum supports children’s personal, moral, cultural, spiritual and social development through learning about others and self-reflection in RE but also in our ‘Philosophy for Children’ (P4C) lessons. We aim for all children to achieve higher-level critical thinking and reasoning skills through the discussion of religious views and non-religious views in an open and respectful way.

The implementation of RE

Our RE curriculum is developed in line with the Sheffield agreed syllabus (SACRE 2014) and aims to provide children with a depth of knowledge about different religions. Over the course of their school lives, children will learn about the 6 principal religions of the world (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism). They will learn about Christianity in each year of their schooling and then will focus in depth on 2 other religions in KS1 and 3 other religions in KS2. Alongside this, children will learn about key festivals of different religions throughout the year as they occur.

RE is taught regularly in class, with assemblies also providing opportunities to learn about other religions and cultures. We aim for RE learning to be engaging and memorable with plenty of opportunities for discussion and using skills from other areas of the curriculum, such as Art, music and drama. Philosophy for Children (P4C) is taught weekly in our school and RE is linked to this, when possible. This allows for deep discussion around beliefs, morals and ‘big questions of life’ and applying their learning about religions when discussing these. 

Our curriculum is designed to help learners remember key knowledge and vocabulary in the long term and to have opportunities to apply these when learning about larger concepts. Each year group builds on the learning of previous years, introducing new vocabulary and knowledge with teachers ensuring they revisit old learning through comparisons and encouraging children to make links and use what they already know. Teachers enhance discussions by targeting their questioning and feedback to support or provide extra challenge. They use ongoing assessments to adapt the learning for children and ensure that knowledge is embedded and becomes more fluent.

Staff have regular CPD (Continuous Profession Development) to ensure they feel confident in their subject knowledge, teaching and assessments of RE. They share good practice they have done themselves through regular professional discussion and sometimes use a carousel approach (where the same teacher teaches an RE lesson to different classes) when they think this will enhance the learning of children.

The impact of our RE curriculum

Ofsted January 2019 identified that, “the school’s work to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is highly effective. Teachers actively promote fundamental British values”. RE supports this development with many opportunities to learn about others and take part in thought-provoking discussion around appropriate subject matters. The introduction of P4C lessons has also helped greatly in developing children’s ability to self-reflect and discuss topics more in-depth. From discussion with pupils and staff and work scrutiny, we are confident that children make good progress in RE. Children enjoy displaying their best work and adding their thoughts around key questions to the class RE floor books.  They are able to take part in respectful discussions, reflecting on their own thinking and actively listening and responding to others. They are developing a more detailed knowledge of religion and different world views and are able to discuss these with a wider vocabulary. Our aim is that by the end of their school journey with us, they enjoy learning about others and are mature, thoughtful learners ready for the next stage of their education.