RE

The principle aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.

Cornwall Syllabus for RE 2020-2025

RE is taught using the Cornwall Agreed Syllabus (2020-2025). This syllabus is designed to develop and deliver excellence in RE throughout the whole school through the study of one religion at a time using a systematic approach. Pupils encounter core concepts in religions and beliefs in a coherent way, developing their understanding and their ability to investigate questions, exploring key concepts and encouraging deeper understanding. The teaching and learning approach has three core elements which are interwoven together to allow for breadth, depth, flexibility and progress.

The Three Core Elements

The three core elements are:

Element 1: Making sense of beliefs – Identifying and making sense of religious and non-religious beliefs and concepts; understanding what these beliefs mean; looking at a range of sources such as texts and how they are used and expressed and interpreted in different ways.

Element 2: Understanding the impact – Examining how and why people put their beliefs into practice in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.

Element 3: Making connections – Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting beliefs and practices studied, allowing pupils to challenge ideas and the ideas studied to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between these and the pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the wider world.

The RE curriculum enables pupils to revisit previous learning and embed new concepts and develop long term consolidation.

Pupils will study in depth the following religious traditions.

Reception: Discovering

Children will encounter Christianity and other faiths, as part of their growing sense of self, their own community and their place within it.

Key Stage One: Exploring

The lives and faiths of Christians, Jews and Muslims

Lower Key Stage Two: Connecting

The lives and beliefs of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews

Upper Key Stage Two: Connecting

The lives, faith and beliefs of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews. The beliefs of humanists and other global beliefs.

The pupils encounter engaging and imaginatively resourced lessons which are taught using a range of teaching and learning styles. These allow for the personal development of skills and understanding. There is a clear sequence of progression throughout the school and children’s knowledge and understanding is built upon as they move from year to year. Progress and attainment are monitored through the End of phase outcomes and any gaps are then addressed. When monitoring, we check that pupils know, understand and apply the concepts, skills and learning processes relevant to each unit and that they are consolidating and embedding learning.

Time Allocation for RE

The syllabus states that religion should take up a minimum of 5% of curriculum time in any one academic year. Collective worship is not included in this time allocation.

Collective Worshop

There is a daily act of collective worship at Treloweth where children are assembled as classes or as a whole school. Assemblies respond to News, the PSHE Curriculum and seasonal events.

Withdrawal from RE

RE is part of the curriculum for all schools as set out in the 1996 Education Act and in the Schools Standards and Framework Act and must be taught to all pupils, however, parents do have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE. This is done in consultation with the RE Leader or Headteacher so that agreement can be reached as to how the withdrawal can best be managed. Appropriate work should be provided by the parents/ carers. In accordance with the Cornwall Agreed Syllabus 2020 R.E. should be taught for 36 hours per year at KS1 and 45 hours at KS2.

Religious Education in Early Years

Pupils will encounter religions and worldviews through special people, books, times, places and objects and by visiting places of worship. They will listen to and talk about stories. They will be introduced to subject specific words and use all of their senses to explore beliefs, practices and forms of expression. They will ask questions and reflect upon their own feelings and experiences. They will use their imagination and curiosity to develop their appreciation of and wonder at the world in which they live.

Through the year they will achieve this through the celebration and experience of festivals and celebrations:

Harvest
Christmas
Lent
Easter
Pentecost/Whitsun

They will also celebrate two Cornish festivals e.g. St Piran’s Day, Obby ‘Oss or local Saint’s days to enable pupils to recognise key themes of human experience within their own lives and the lives around them.

In addition they will be read stories from both the New Testament and the Old Testament.

Intent

In our RE curriculum we aim for children to know about and develop an understanding of a range of religions so that they can describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practises, recognising the diversity which exits within and between communities.

The business of RE is an exploration of the influence of religions and beliefs on individuals, culture, behaviour and national life. Our RE curriculum enables children to develop their own identity, their sense of belonging and connection to the global community. We make relevant links to children’s own experiences and reflect upon their own personal understanding, traditions and values.

Our curriculum enables children to develop a positive sense of themselves, and others, and to learn how to form positive and respectful relationships. They will begin to understand and value the differences of individuals and groups within their own immediate community. Children will have the opportunity to develop their emerging moral and cultural awareness.

Implementation

The teaching and learning approach we have adopted in RE, has 3 core elements which are woven together to provide breadth and balance within teaching and learning about religions and beliefs.

Our curriculum offers a structure through which pupils can encounter diverse religious traditions alongside non-religious world views – which reflect the backgrounds of many pupils in our school.

The 3 core elements are ‘making sense of beliefs, making connects and understanding the impact’.
Making sense of beliefs – identifying and making sense of core religious and non-religious beliefs and concepts; understanding what these beliefs mean within their traditions; recognising how and why sources of authority (such as texts) are used, expressed and interpreted in different ways, and developing skills of interpretation.
Making connections – evaluating reflecting on and connecting the beliefs and practices studied; allowing pupils to challenge ideas studied, and the ideas studied to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between these and pupils own lives and ways of understanding the world.
Understanding the impact – examining how and why people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.

Pupils study the main world religions; Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and in upper KS2 we study the beliefs and practices of Humanists. RE lessons take the form of discussions and debates, reflection and recording of knowledge, thoughts and views.

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from RE lessons. This request must be made in writing to the Headteacher. Parents are strongly advised to consult with the school to seek further information on the RE curriculum and the approach to teaching and learning before any decision is made.

Please click on the Pdf below to view our RE policy:

RE_Policy

At a glance

• Cornwall Agreed Syllabus 2020-2025 guiding principles inform year group subject mapping documents
• RE is mapped across year groups in small sequential steps and end points identified (to know, do and experience)
• Treloweth ½ term Progression Documents plot sequential small steps
• Classes have a weekly lesson
• Cornwall Agreed Syllabus provides planning, suggested activities, and signposts to extra support and resources
• Information for parents can be found in ½ term overviews
• Visitors to the school, subject-related activities and assemblies further enhance teaching and learning
• Examples of work can be found on class website pages and newsletters
• Links to other subjects include: History, Art, Drama, Music, English