Religious Education

In RE, we learn about different religious and non-religious worldviews

The teaching of RE in Stranton Primary School fits in with our rationale and aims for our whole school curriculum:

They include ensuring that the curriculum:

• Has the needs of the children at the heart of everything we do
• Is based on a strong foundation of oracy
• Meets the needs of our local community
• Is full of exciting, enriching and enjoyable learning experiences
• Provides opportunities for our children, staff and parents to all learn together.
• Positively improves academic outcomes
• Prepares our children to become positive role models in and effective contributors to Society
• Gives our pupils the chance to become the very best versions of themselves.

Or in short, a curriculum which provides only the very best education, opportunities and experiences for all of our pupils.

Vision for RE

The aim of RE teaching here at Stranton Primary School is to build religious literacy through developing knowledge and understanding about religious and non-religious worldviews and developing critical thinking through the skills of analysis and evaluation in relation to questions raised by their learning in RE. We want our RE curriculum to make a unique contribution to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children, which in the long term will support wider community cohesion.

Specifically getting better at RE means:

• increasing knowledge and understanding of specific religious and non-religious worldviews, knowledge becomes deeper, more complex and more comprehensive.
• increasing knowledge and understanding of how religion can be defined and understood in a coherent way, how concepts can connect to form a framework of understanding religion, what is meant by the term ‘worldview’.
• increasing knowledge and understanding of religious diversity and similarities and differences within and across religious and non-religious traditions.
• Extending use of specialist vocabulary in a way that becomes increasingly technical, unfamiliar theological conceptual and abstract.
• Extending knowledge and understanding of the significance and influence of religious and non-religious worldviews on individuals, communities and societies.
• Increasing the ability to ask sophisticated questions, analysis and evaluate a range of ideas, practices and opinions in relation to material studied.

RE also gives opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own experiences, feelings, beliefs, values and ideas in response to the material covered. This opportunity for personal reflection can be developed and deepened throughout the key stages but is not part of assessment or benchmark expectations.

Teaching of RE

Religious Education in Stranton Primary School is an academically rigorous subject which is inclusive of all, whatever their religious or non-religious views.

We follow the Hartlepool Agreed Syllabus. This encourages pupils to ask challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issue of right and wrong and what it means to be human.  As they progress through school they deepen their knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and non-religious worldviews and begin to understand the complexity, diversity and plural nature of religious and non-religious worldviews. Religious Education in Stranton plays a key part in developing critical thinking and personal reflection. The syllabus recognises the place of Christianity and the other principle religions in the UK and includes non-religious world views. It is not designed to promote a particular religion or religious belief on pupils but does makes a significant contribution to the active promotion of mutual respect. 

All parents do have the right to withdraw their child from Religious Education. Any parent considering this is asked to contact the headteacher to arrange a discussion.  

The school uses a variety of teaching and learning approaches in RE lessons. We believe in whole-class teaching methods and combine these with enquiry-based research activities. We believe children learn best when:

• They have access to, and are able to handle artefacts
• They go on visits to religious places of worship
• Visitors talk about their personal experiences of their faith
• They listen to and interact with stories and sacred texts.
• They use drama and dance to act out events and interpret beliefs.
• They create pieces of art work to show expressions of belief
• They have access to secondary sources such as books and photographs
• They are shown, or use independently, resources from the internet and videos
• They are provided with opportunities to give personal responses on their own experiences, feelings, beliefs, values and ideas in response to the material covered.
• They are provided with opportunities to work independently or collaboratively, to ask as well as answer religious questions.

We recognise the fact that we have children of differing ability in all our classes, and so we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to the ability of the child. We achieve this through a range of strategies which are differentiated by task, expected outcome and/or support from peers or adults. 

Recording of RE

In line with Stranton Primary School’s curriculum rationale of providing hands-on experiential learning, supported by our strong oracy foundation; RE work will be recorded and evidenced in individual RE books. These books will show the individual learning journey of each child and the progress they have made within each topic and across the curriculum. Skills, experiences and practical learning outcomes are recorded at the back of the children’s books. Activities are organised and resourced to allow pupils to present their own learning. Following practical activities, pupils complete a knowledge and/or vocabulary activity to review or revisit their learning.

Assessment of RE

In order to assess the children’s knowledge in RE, teachers will track the children’s progress against what has been taught to allow them to identify gaps in learning.  This will enable misconceptions or knowledge which hasn’t been retained to be addressed in the ‘revisit’ section of future lessons. At the end of each term, teachers will give an overall judgement of each child, recording attainment on the school’s curriculum tracking sheet. This judgement will be based on evidence from children’s book, and performance in class. Teachers will also conduct observational assessments of children during lessons and assess verbal responses from children in line with our oracy framework.

 Monitoring of RE

Monitoring takes place regularly through sampling children’s work, lesson observations and importantly talking to the children – ensuring they enjoy each subject and can recall key knowledge of what they have been taught.

RE Curriculum