Intent (what is our Religious Education curriculum?)
At Haddenham Community Junior School, we believe that it is important to provide a curriculum that enables our children to have a strong understanding of how RE can play an important role in their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
We know that our relationships with members of our local faith communities can enrich pupils’ experiences in RE and we strive to cultivate and maintain these relationships.
By the end of Key Stage 2, we believe that our children should know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so that they can:
• Describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals;
• Identify, investigate and respond to questions posed and responses offered by some religions and worldviews;
• Appreciate and reflect on the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.
The children will also be able to express their ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so that they can
explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities.
Implementation (how do we deliver this curriculum?)
Our curriculum is based on the Buckinghamshire Agreed Syllabus for RE. Two statutory attainment targets drive the teaching of RE and are important as RE must be relevant to the children’s own personal development and awareness.
AT1 – Learning about Religion and Belief.
(Enquiring into, investigating and understanding religions and beliefs.)
AT2 – Learning from Religion and Belief.
(Questioning, exploring, reflecting upon and interpreting human experience in the light of religions and beliefs studied).
The 2022 Buckinghamshire syllabus recommends an ‘enquiry’ method when planning and teaching units of work. The school has adopted ‘Discovery RE’ materials as an approach to deliver the syllabus, as it encompasses a question-led approach.
Each unit begins with a ‘Big Question’, the children then explore texts, make connections with their own lives and explore how the text impacts the lives of Christians and the Christian community. A similar enquiry model is used when studying the other major faiths.
The following table shows the curriculum coverage of RE across the school.
|
Year Groups |
Religions to be studied |
|
|
Years 3 and 4 |
Year 3 - Christianity and Judaism |
Year 4: Christianity and Hinduism |
|
Years 5 and 6 |
Year 5 - Christianity and Sikhism |
Year 6: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Humanism (where appropriate) |
The teaching of Religious Education lends itself to a variety of teaching styles, all of which are employed as and when appropriate. Pupils could be taught as individuals, as part of a small group, or as part of a whole class. A variety of teaching approaches will be used including discussions, role play, debates, music, writing and art.
Equality and Inclusion
We ensure that all pupils receive equal access to educational opportunities, regardless of their religious beliefs, gender, race, ability, social background or physical capacity. Care is taken in RE to avoid the reinforcement of negative or stereotypical images and RE aims to celebrate and appreciate cultural diversity through a variety of materials and experiences, in order to reflect the cultural diversities of Britain.
Where special educational needs are identified, teachers will provide such pupils with appropriate opportunities, in line with the requirements of the local authority agreed syllabus.
Impact (how do we measure attainment?)
The achievement of Expected level for each year group is evidenced through first-hand observation of how students perform at lesson objective level, drawing on evidence from pupil voice interview, book scrutiny, observations, assessments and curriculum reviews. Together, this bank of information allows teachers to assess the children robustly and informatively at 4 key assessment points that we call threshold concepts .
