Teaching RE at Haselworth Primary School

Intent

“Living Difference IV”, the Agreed Syllabus for Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight, is the legal document to be followed for the teaching of religious education in our school.  This is the statutory framework which defines the matters, skills and processes to guide individual schools developing their curriculum for religious education.

Our RE provision aims to introduce children to what a religious way of looking at and existing in the world may offer in leading one’s life, individually and collectively, whilst promoting community cohesion.  It also aims to provide opportunities to promote an ethos of respect for others, challenge stereotypes and build understanding of cultures and beliefs.

We believe that it is important for young people to acquire a better understanding of the role that religions play in today’s world. The need for such education will continue to grow as different cultures and identities interact with each other through travel, commerce, media or migration. Although a deeper understanding of religions will not automatically lead to greater tolerance and respect, ignorance increases the likelihood of misunderstanding, stereotyping, and conflict.

Pupils who follow the RE programme in our school gain a deep knowledge and understanding of the teachings, practices and life stories expressed in a variety of ways within Christianity and other principal religions and world views. Through reflection on their own beliefs and values in the light of their learning, they grow in respect for themselves and others.
 

How do we teach RE?

The aims of teaching Religious Education in our school are to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in UK; to appreciate the way that religious beliefs can shape life and our behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about

religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Our Religious Education curriculum will:

• Enable all children to explore many religious beliefs and practices, respect differences and promote a harmonious society.
• Encourage children to explore the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences (using P4C as a powerful tool to scaffold discussions and develop vocabulary)
• Extend children’s thinking and analytical skills and their creative, imaginative and emotional development.
• Foster mutual understanding between children of differing religious and cultural backgrounds.
• Build a reflective approach to life in an atmosphere of openness, exploration and enquiry.
• Promote the spiritual, social, moral, cultural, physical and mental development of all children.

The agreed syllabus outlines the following elements and children are required to complete all the elements of the sequence in order to make sense of what they are studying and the implication for themselves and others:

Communicate their own experience of the concept/word studied

Apply their own beliefs and values to situations in their own and others’ lives

Enquire into religious/non-religious concepts

Contextualise what is being studied in religious practice and belief and specific situations

Evaluate what has been discussed, taught and learnt

Teaching methods are stimulating and engaging, providing all children with access to religious education. Consideration is paid to different learning styles and the differing abilities of children so that all children make progress in their learning. Each half term a concept will be explored and then linked to various religions celebrations or practices – each religion children learn about at Haselworth, has a dedicated box filled with a variety of resources and artefacts.

Teaching and learning strategies include:

• Visits to places of worship, museums or art galleries
• The use of representatives from religious traditions as visitors to the class (our school link also has monthly visits, from Christchurch, to deliver a Christian assembly to the whole school)
• The use of artefacts, big books, posters, videos, artwork (artefacts will be used with great respect as many must be handled with certain ‘rules’ in mind - teachers will inform the children how to handle artefacts carefully before showing them to the class)
• The use of picture or word cards for matching, classifying, prioritising, sequencing, etc
• The use of art and craft to enable children to express their ideas
• The use of drama, role play, gesture or dance
• The use of music to create an atmosphere or for expression of ideas and emotions
• The use of information and communication technology, such as digital cameras, interactive whiteboards, websites for example.

Implementation

Due to having mixed age classes, the school has a two-year rolling programme (Cycle A and Cycle B) so that all national curriculum requirements are fully covered without children repeating the same topics. The curriculum map outlines the termly topic and in which cycle it is taught. These topics form the basis of the learning journey.  

The learning journey details previous assessment outcomes, National Curriculum links, the substantive and disciplinary skills/knowledge that are taught/practised by children, the learning objective, the learning tasks, key vocabulary, resources, links with other subjects and assessment information. The learning journeys are adapted and refined according to a teacher's assessment so that the planning is responsive to the needs of all learners. We ensure that children of all abilities have the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding in this way, so that children are increasingly challenged as they move through school.

At Haselworth Primary School we provide a variety of opportunities for RE learning inside and outside the classroom and through educational visits to places of interest or worship. 

We value the religious background of all members of the school community and hope that this will encourage individuals to share their own experiences with others freely. All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school, and a faith community.  We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils.  We promote teaching in Religious Education that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children. 

The Foundation Stage

We encourage the development of skills, knowledge and understanding that help reception children make sense of their world as an integral part of the school’s work. Understanding the world involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community.

Inclusion including Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers)

At Haselworth Primary School we teach RE to all children, whatever their ability. Through high quality initial teaching, we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this through appropriate task design which meets each child’s individual needs. Teachers will also take into account the targets set for individual children in their Individual Education Plans and Individual Behaviour Plans as appropriate. We recognise that learners have differing needs and provide suitable learning opportunities for all by matching the challenge of the activities to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies:

• setting common learning activities that are open-ended and can have a variety of results;
• setting learning of increasing difficulty where not all children complete all tasks;
• setting specific learning according to individual needs and targets
• grouping children by ability and setting different tasks for each group;
• mixed ability grouping which facilitates peer support
• providing a range of challenges through the provision of different resources and scaffolds (such as pre-teaching of unfamiliar vocabulary)
• using additional adults to support the work of individual children or small groups.

Equality

All teaching and learning of RE will ensure that every child has the right to be included and supported as far as possible in the knowledge that there is equality in terms of opportunity, social background, race, gender and disability. Religious beliefs of pupils and their families will be respected at all times.

Assessment and Recording

Teachers assess children’s work in RE by making assessments as they observe them working during lessons and through marking/feedback. They record the progress that children make by assessing the children’s work against the learning objectives. Teachers annotate the planning and amend/refine as required to meet the needs of learners. 

Throughout the learning journey, teachers make a judgement against the National Curriculum statements as well as the substantive and disciplinary knowledge/skills identified by the school. Assessments are recorded on the learning journeys. Teachers then use the data to plan the future work of each child and to make an annual assessment of progress for each child, as part of the annual report to parents. Each teacher passes this information on to the next teacher at the end of each year as part of the school's transition processes. 

Right to Withdraw

RE is provided for all pupils and is inclusive and broad minded. Parents do have the right to withdraw pupils from RE: if they wish to do this, they must make a request in writing and make an appointment with the Headteacher. The school does not support selective withdrawal from RE.
 

Impact

The monitoring of the standards of children’s work and of the quality of teaching in RE is the responsibility of the Language and Culture Curriculum Team. The team supports colleagues in the teaching of RE, being informed about current developments in the subject and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school.

The following information outlines how the Curriculum Teams monitor, evaluate and review their subjects.

• Curriculum Teams use self-evaluation and write clear action plans and ensure that they are understood by all those involved in putting the plans into practice, including staff who are new to the school. These are reviewed termly and contribute to the monitoring, review and evaluation of the school development plan.
• Curriculum Teams follow a cycle of monitoring throughout the school for the academic year, ensuring that they can make judgements about the standards within their subjects. This includes learning walks, planning, books looks and pupil conferencing.
• Curriculum Teams report their impact to Governors. 
• Curriculum Teams ensure that teachers are clear about the teaching objectives in lessons, understand the sequence of teaching and learning in the subject, and communicate such information to pupils.
• Curriculum Teams ensure curriculum coverage, continuity and progression of substantive/disciplinary knowledge and skills in their subject for all pupils, regardless of their initial starting points. This includes having high expectations of all learners with SEND, EAL and those identified as being disadvantaged. 
• Curriculum Teams establish a clear, shared understanding of the importance and role of the subject in contributing to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, cultural, mental and physical development, and in preparing pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.
• Curriculum Teams use data effectively to identify pupils who are underachieving in the subject and, where necessary, create and implement effective plans of action to support those pupils