Religious Education

RE at Fens Primary School aims to inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, thus equipping them with the knowledge, skills and understanding to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society.

Our Religious Education Curriculum Intent

The intention of Religious Education at Fens Primary School is to inspire our children to develop a deepening knowledge and understanding about a range of religious and non-religious world views.

The children will:

• Describe and explain religious beliefs and the ways different beliefs are expressed.
• Know and understand how these beliefs impact individuals, communities and societies.
• Describe and explain some sources of authority and teachings by studying different religions and world views.
• Gain and deploy deepening understanding of specialist vocabulary and terms.
• Gain skills that enable them to question their learning and enable critical thinking through the material they are studying.
• Have opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development and reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, values and beliefs.
• Study religious diversity within Hartlepool and their wider area.
• They will understand not everyone has the same beliefs or views and so be respectful of others.
• Through RE, they will be able to challenge prejudice discrimination and racism.

How we implement our RE Curriculum

We implement RE through the Hartlepool Agreed Syllabus which was revised in 2020 for the basis of our Curriculum. The syllabus encourages enquiry-based learning and provides a developmental approach to RE which is coherent and systematic. Continuity and progression is achieved by building on the knowledge, understanding and skills that pupils gain across and between key stages. The Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter are covered by a whole school approach where children share findings in assembly time. Teachers have some flexibility to move questions that fit in with other areas of the curriculum providing the sequential progression is not affected.

Hartlepool Agreed Syllabus

The curriculum covers the RE Concepts of Belief, Authority, Expressions of Belief and Impact of Belief. Each element is driven by a key question which is a basis for enquiry-based learning where children are provided opportunities to engage explore and evaluate their learning.

How we measure the impact of our RE Curriculum

Pupils’ learning and understanding in RE will be assessed against the benchmark expectations set out in the Hartlepool Agreed Syllabus. Of the three elements in RE, Personal Reflection is not assessed.

Knowledge and Understanding of specific religious and non-religious worldviews will become deeper, more complex and more comprehensive across the year groups and key stages. This will include the use of specialised vocabulary and making connections between concepts. Knowledge and Understanding of similarities and differences between and within religious and non-religious worldviews will become increasingly sophisticated.

Critical Thinking requires pupils to become increasingly sophisticated in analysing and evaluating questions raised by religious and non-religious worldviews, their beliefs, practices and their significance and influence. This involves working with increasingly complex information and types of evidence. It includes understanding that there are differing perspectives about the complex questions and issues which relate to beliefs and ways of living in our world today. Critical Thinking involves grappling with the controversial nature of religious and non-religious worldviews.

RE Curriculum Map