Curriculum statement for Religious Education 

Intent   

At St. Mary’s, our Religious Education (RE) provision reflects the Church of England Statement of Entitlement, develops religious literacy and meets statutory obligations.   

The curriculum we use helps pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, through the exploration of core theological concepts using an approach that critically engages with text.  

We help pupils to consider the impact and connection that Christianity has on Britain’s cultural heritage, and the lives of people worldwide, helping all pupils to develop knowledge and understanding of other major world religions and world views, and their impact on society and culture, with particular consideration for the origins and manifestations of our core Christian values (acceptance, kindness, fairness, honesty and respect).  

In addition, RE gives pupils a safe space to critically reflect on their own religious, spiritual and/or philosophical convictions.   

Implementation   

From Foundation Stage One to Year Six, we follow the Understanding Christianity approach, covering the core concepts of the Christian faith in the context of the Big Picture of the Bible.  We ensure that children learn about world faiths through the Discovery RE scheme of work; this allows the children to learn about Judaism from Foundation Stage onwards.  They also learn about Sikhism from Key Stage 2 and, additionally, study Islam in Upper Key Stage 2.  Each class engages with a session of Godly Play from an accredited Godly Play storyteller at least once a term.  Teachers timetable a weekly session that is dedicated to RE and taught by the class teacher.  This is at least 45 minutes for FS and KS1, and at least an hour for KS2, in line with the Statutory Statement of Entitlement. We ensure that children are offered at least 50% of the learning in the Christian faith.  

Impact   

The impact of a quality, assessed RE curriculum, delivered by qualified teachers in accordance with our Intent, is a solid basis for learning about the world in which we live and the people with whom we live.  It is instrumental in teaching the children tolerance and acceptance, as they understand those with different belief systems from their own, whilst learning and exploring more deeply about their own beliefs.  This impacts on many other areas of the curriculum, encouraging children to ask big questions, whilst building a relational understanding of history, science and RSE within their own faith structure.