How do we implement RE?

How do we implement our RE curriculum?

As a Church of England school, we abide by the Statement of Entitlement. As such, we ensure that pupils receive one hour of Religion per week. At Key Stage Two, children are required to learn about different world religions, with at least 50% of curriculum time focusing on Christianity. Our different focus religions are Christianity, Sikhism (Yr.3), Hinduism (Yr.4) Islam (Yr.5) and Buddhism (Yr.6) as these are representative of both our school and local community.

Religious Education at St Margaret’s CE Junior School is taught using a rolling 2-year cycle across lower phase and upper phase. Lessons are planned and delivered using the Medway Agreed Syllabus (SACRE), as well as Understanding Christianity documents. Knowledge and understanding in religion is developed in a variety of ways, ensuring that all pupils can access and participate in lessons. Interactive, practical activities encourage pupils to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions. Substantive knowledge is taught, but our primary focus is to develop the children’s disciplinarian knowledge. In our RE curriculum, this is split into three strands: Making Sense of the Text, Understanding the Impact or Making Connections. Children are encouraged to explore religious texts, concepts and beliefs, consider how these relate to the actions of believers and reflect on how their learning can apply to their own lives and the world around them. These three strands are interwoven through every RE topic as well as enhancing their Literacy skills. Pupils’ progress in RE is based on the expected outcomes outlined in the Medway Agreed Syllabus and Understanding Christianity documents, which in turn have been developed in line with national guidance.

We assess children at the end of every unit basing judgements upon outcomes for the specific units. We track individual pupil’s progress against these outcomes, whilst also bearing in mind that the statements do not cover all aspects of teaching and learning in Understanding Religion. For example, pupil’s personal views and ideas are not subject to formal assessment, and yet are central to excellent religion provision. Progress in religion is tracked alongside all other core subjects using our data management system and is reported annually to parents, having a prominent position in the end of year report.