Religious Education

'RE is like the Tardis.  Despite the small space it occupies in the curriculum, it is huge, encompassing nothing less than humanity's most searching questions, its deepest hopes, the history of the world's beliefs and their diverse manifestation in the modern world' (NATRE)

Intent

At Lawn Primary School we use Kapow Primary's Religious and Worldviews curriculum for our RE, which aims to develop deep thinkers who are open minded about religion and worldviews.  Our RE curriculum is relevant to children, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain.  Through the scheme, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views.

Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in our progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning.  By revisiting key 'big questions' and building on prior knowledge, children will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldviews.

Kapow's Religion and Worldviews scheme of work has enabled us to meet the governments guidance, which states that RE must reflect that 'the religious traditions in Great Britain are, in the main, Christian while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principle religions represented in Great Britain'.  The scheme has been designed to fulfil the aims of A Curriculum framework for Religious Education in England and the Principal Aims set out in the Kent Agreed Syllabus.

Principal Aims:

The principal aims of RE is engage children in systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.

 Implementation

Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021) the scheme has the following three strands running through it:

These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children's conceptual knowledge and understanding of religious worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses (ways of knowing).  Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences.

Our RE scheme follow a spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon.  Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts. 

In EYFS, children begin to talk about the beliefs of their immediate family and community, recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways.  They listen to religious and modern day stories and compare and contrast characters, including figures from the past.  Children develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key Stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity.  This will support children in building knowledge can refer to throughout their learning in Key Stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.

Each unit includes overarching 'big questions' which will be revisited throughout Key Stage 1, lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts.  The 'big questions' are:

Why are we here?

Why do worldviews change?

What is religion?

How can worldviews be expressed?

How do worldviews affect our daily lives?

How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?

A more specific, focused question frames the learning across each unit.  Both the 'big question' and the focused enquiry question will allow children to explore the content they are studying, make comparisons and links within and across religions and worldviews, and explore their personal views.

Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hand-on, allowing children to learn and record their thoughts, answers and ideas in various ways.  In each lesson, children will participate in activities involving disciplinary and substantive concepts, developing their knowledge and understanding of diverse religions and worldviews.

Guidance for adapting the learning is available for every lesson to ensure that all children can access lessons, and opportunities to stretch children's learning is also available when required.  Knowledge organisers are being produced and in the interim the Kapow knowledge organisers are used, these support children's developing conceptual knowledge and schemata by summarising the key concepts covered in a unit and linking these to examples covered.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to deliver a highly-effective and robust RE curriculum.  Each unit of lessons will focus on the key subject knowledge needed to deliver the curriculum, making links to prior learning and identifying possible misconceptions.  Kapow has been created with the understanding that some teachers do not feel confident delivering the RE curriculum, and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported to deliver lessons of high quality with confidence.  The nature of Religion and Worldviews means that controversial and sensitive issues will be taught and discussed in some units or may come up when not directly part of a planned lesson.  Throughout the units, children will learn skills to have respectful discussions and respond sensitively to one another.  Teacher CPD resources will include guidance on how to facilitate such discussions and how to answer and respond to controversial or sensitive questions and viewpoints.

The Kapow Primary Religion and Worldviews curriculum emphasises the importance of diverse representations within and across religions and worldviews, focusing on real people's lived experiences of their beliefs.

Impact

The impact of our RE scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities.  Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing children against the learning objectives.  Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide summative assessment.

By implementing this curriculum children will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education.  They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way.  They will be curious learners who ask questions and make connections, confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.

By following this scheme of work, we expect the impact will be that children will:

• Meet the relevant Early Learning Goals at the end of EYFS (Reception) and the End of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 requirements, from the Curriculum framework for Religious Education for England.
• Know and understand religious concepts relating to beliefs, practices, community and belonging, and wisdom and guidance
• Develop an understanding of the influence of organised and personal worldviews on individuals, communities, countries and globally.
• Understand some of the ways religions and worldviews are studied (disciplinary knowledge).
• Develop understanding of their relationship with the content studied, being able to talk about their assumptions and preconceptions (personal knowledge).
• Build secure vocabulary which allows them to talk confidently and fluently about their learning.
• Answer questions about worldviews through an enquiry-based approach including investigating, interpreting, evaluating, applying and expressing.
• Talk about the similarities and differences between their own and others' beliefs with respect and open mindedness.
• Understand the lived experiences of religious and non-religious worldviews to be diverse within and between people and communities.
• Develop an understanding of the ways in which personal and organised worldviews may develop and change across time and place.