Religious Education
At King William Street Church of England Primary School, we believe that Religious Education
- is inclusive
- is respectful of all faiths
- is tolerant of all beliefs
- allows children to develop their knowledge and understanding of these faiths and beliefs
- enables children to ask and explore life's 'Big Questions'.
Using ‘Understanding Christianity’ and ‘Discovery RE’ we aim to engage, encourage, inspire and challenge children, so that they are equipped with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions. This allows children to ask deep and meaningful questions about their own faith and beliefs, and the beliefs, faith and opinions of others. This provides a well-balanced approach and encourages children to develop a healthy and respectful understanding of a range of major world religions and an awareness of the impact of those on believers’ daily lives.
As a church school, the main focus of our Religious Education curriculum is Christianity but within our curriculum children are given the opportunity to explore six major religions of the world. Religious Education is taught progressively throughout school, ensuring knowledge and skills are revisited and deepened within each school phase. In Key Stage One, children encounter Christianity, Judaism and Islam. In Key Stage Two, children will revisit these religions, but also encounter Hinduism, Buddhism, and non-religious views, such as Humanism.
The document below gives an overview of each unit in RE for each term and each year group.
Celebrating Hanukah we created their own dreidel and made potato latkes. “ The potato Latkes were easy to make and tasted crunchy and delicious!”
“ We created a friendship web to show our friendship towards one another, just like Jesus did to his disciples”
“ We learnt how Jesus’ friend grew to trust him through telling the story of Jesus Calms the Storm”
Religious Education is taught as a separate subject and these lessons take place in all classes from Reception to Year 6 each week. In Reception, RE is taught within three Areas of Learning: Personal, Social, and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Understanding the World.
We base each topic in RE around a series of questions and we always begin by starting from what the children know already. The questions posed are explored in great depth to provoke deep thinking. To do this we spend much time reflecting, discussing, debating and providing first hand experiences.
Where appropriate, children are given the are opportunity to experience different places of worship through visits to local mosques, churches, and temple. Members of different faiths or religions via the local community are invited into school and encouraged to share their knowledge to enhance learning across the school.
For every unit of work, evidence of learning is recorded in Class Religious Education books (KS1) or children’s RE books (KS2) using a combination of writing, drawing, artwork and photographs.
Religious Education Policy.
We visited the Sikh Temple in Swindon.
Who is special to us?
What is God like?
What might heaven look like?
What do Christians believe about being saved?
We heard the story of the Pentecost using Godly play.
We looked at artwork of The Pentecost and discussed which parts of the narrative had been emphasized, which parts of the narrative have been missed out and carefully studied the emotions on the people as to why might they feel like that.
