Goring CE Primary: Curriculum Intent: RE
- To develop pupil’s spirituality through creativity and imagination as they explore religion.
- To explore and develop values by which to live including hope, aspiration and courageous advocacy through moral development and engaging in social action in local, national and global communities.
- To develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity with particular reference to the Anglican tradition.
- To develop children’s awareness and appreciation of God’s created world.
- To learn about other people’s religions in order to develop a mutual respect for those with different religious beliefs.
- To enable pupils to disagree well through the practice of forgiveness and reconciliation encouraging good mental health and a sense of belonging that embraces and celebrates difference with dignity and respect.
Curriculum Implementation
Religious Education is taught through a combination of units based on the Understanding Christianity resources, and a third of the year devoted to the teaching of other faiths and worldviews. This work is planned to ensure the highest quality of enquiry-led learning experiences for the pupils and to cover the requirements of the Diocesan Guidelines Syllabus, and keeping much of the long-standing good practice from the school’s previous scheme of work. Our teaching seeks to balance the two aspects of coverage, with children learning about religion by gaining knowledge and understanding, and learning from religions, by responding and applying their own values and worldviews.
The curriculum is planned to deliver R.E. through a combination of methods:
- As discrete RE units planned across the year – God/Creation, People of God, Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation, Kingdom of God and various aspects of Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. These have been carefully planned to enable coverage using the Understanding Christianity units.
- Key elements of the annual Christian festivals are taught and enhanced each time they are visited and are linked into the Understanding Christianity units. Other religious festivals are explored through planned units and collective worship – e.g. Yom Kippur, Diwali, Holi, Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot.
- The opportunity is taken to deliver identified areas of R.E. through our 2 year rolling cycle of planned collective worship, our weekly class based Values assemblies, termly reflective house activities and child-led church services e.g. Harvest, Christmas, Easter and our Year 6 Leavers’ Service.
- The Jigsaw programme for PSHCE, and circle time where needed, is used in addition to RE lessons and collective worship to give further opportunity for reflection and discussion.
- Annual RE and Art Days are used as a whole school opportunity to reflect and respond creatively to a ‘big question’, such as “Why Am I Precious?”, “What Is My Purpose?”
The school allocates 5% of curriculum time to Religious Education, in line with the recommendations of the Diocesan Agreed Syllabus and the Dearing Report, although the actual amount of time given each week will vary. In Key Stage 1, the allocation is 36 hours per year (12 hours each term or 1 hour each week). This will include 10-12 hours Judaism and 24 - 26 hours Christianity, plus time for reflection, planning and preparation for Nativity. In KS2, this equates to 45 hours per year (15 hours each term or 1 hour 15 minutes each week). This will include 15 hours Judaism/ Islam/ Hinduism/ comparative religions and 30 hours Christianity, plus time taken for reflection, planning and preparation for our Church services.
Withdrawal
Parents are informed through the school prospectus and the Headteacher’s information meeting for parents of new children, that they have the right to withdraw their child from collective worship and Religious Education. When parents request that their child is withdrawn, parents are invited to discuss the matter with the Headteacher, to clarify the beliefs and practices that they do not wish their child to participate in.
No children are currently withdrawn, but should this change in the future, children would join the parallel class and participate in the activity taking place at the time. Children withdrawn from worship in school are supervised by the welfare assistant. Children are encouraged to bring and complete material sent from home or work on PSHCE activities.
Community
The school has special links with St. Mary’s Church and St. Laurence’s Church. Our school was indeed founded from a trust deed from a member of St. Mary’s Church almost 100 years ago.
The vicar supports the school in many ways by taking regular collective worship and as a member of the Governing Body. The clergy support the development of the school’s Worship Policy and the Policy for Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development through the work of the Governor’s Ethos committee.
An Agape meal is held every term, led by the vicar and children who have taken their first holy communion, and this is attended by all pupils and staff. Children in Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to prepare for First Communion through a programme of lessons with members of the clergy.
The school supports the local Christian community through charitable events such as the Worthing Churches Homeless Project charity, Dambala Road School in Sierra Leone and the Children’s Society collection.
The school actively promotes the understanding of other faiths by encouraging and welcoming parents and other members of the local community into school, to share knowledge and experiences with both children and adults.