Intent

We aspire to challenge minds and ignite curiosity through an RE curriculum that is accessible to all learners and allows our most curious thinkers to flourish in their reasoning. Our RE Scheme of Work provides pupils from EYFS through to Year 6 with a coherent picture of Christian worldviews and a range of other worldviews. The children will explore key concepts which are driven by the three core strands of: Beliefs and questions, Community and identity and Reality and truth. These strands will allow the children to engage, investigate and evaluate, whilst having opportunities for personal expression. This approach ensures all learners have plentiful opportunities to explore their diverse world of religion, carefully considering where their own developing beliefs fit within it. Children and adults reflect on how people of faith act as good neighbours in order that they might find inspiring new ways to be well-rounded forces for good in the world. Children here know that faith is a special and precious thing to many, and they learn to value its contributions to our local and global community. Our key aim is to develop curiosity in pupils and to equip them for future learning about, as well as enabling them to make sense of, the complex world of religious and non-religious worldviews.

Beliefs and questions - This stand will focus on theology, looking at the core beliefs and diverse interpretations of text, symbols and teachings of the chosen religions and worldviews.

Community and identity -This strand will focus on Human and Social Science and using data and other sources to examine practices and human expressions of religious and non-religious beliefs.

Reality and truth - This strand will focus on philosophy and ethics, looking at how people decide what is true and reliable drawing on the worldviews covered in the other units. It is in these units that pupils will have the opportunity to explore the wider concept of what a worldview is and how people reach these ideas.

Implementation

• To ensure children develop a knowledge of  Christian worldviews and a range of other worldviews, the school uses the ODBE Schools RE scheme as a medium term planning skeleton.
• Teachers create individual lesson plans based on the suggested progression in the ODBE Schools RE units of work.
• Staff in the school are responsible for making our RE curriculum fit our context. 
• To reflect our status as a Church of England school, greater emphasis is given to Christianity than to other religions and world views combined. At least 50% (usually more) of our teaching time is devoted to Christianity.
• We provide opportunities for progression through the three disciplinary lenses of believing, thinking and living.
• Children use their own perspectives and experiences to begin to consider a key question for each unit. 
• Prior learning and future learning will be included to ensure every lesson adds to the overall aim. 
• During each unit the children will explore through learning and recording knowledge about religious and non-religious stories, traditions and practices. 
• Children progressively learn to respectfully assign value to religious and non-religious texts, stories and practices. They are encouraged to carefully consider how people’s faiths are important to them for a variety of reasons.
• Children are enabled to express their own views and spiritual responses to faith and religion. 
• As pupils progress through the school, comparisons are drawn between religious teachings and individual experience.

Impact

As a result of our RE teaching at Trinity, you will see:

• Regular references to the importance of commitment from staff and pupils
• Independent recording of religious stories using a combination of writing, illustrations and drama
• Honest discussions about children’s own views about religious and spiritual questions
• An appreciation and celebration of each other’s faiths and beliefs
• A growing knowledge of Christianity and several other major religions
• Difficult questions being celebrated and used as points upon which to reflect
• Children begin to recognise that the way people behave is influenced by their beliefs
• Regular visits from religious leaders and to places of worship
• Pupils who know more and remember more about Christianity and other worldviews.
• Pupils who are able to ask questions, use a range of sources and skills to explore the traditions taught
• Pupils who have developed curiosity about how and why people think and act
• Pupils will know that there is always more to learn about religious and non-religious worldviews, showing curiosity to research further
• Pupils that understand there are different ways of interpreting texts, and that different people reach different conclusions about what is true, good, right and wrong.

Subject lead: Charlotte Whittle

Statement of Entitlement

In Church of England schools, where pupils and staff come from all faiths and none, religious education (RE) is a highly valued academic subject that enables understanding of how religion and beliefs affect our lives. At the heart of RE in church schools is the teaching of Christianity and pupils also learn about other faiths and world views.

The statement of entitlements lays out the entitlement of all children to receive a high quality Religious Education, which supports them in all aspects of their learning. The statement lays out the details of coverage of the RE curriculum in church schools.

Religious education in a Church school should enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. (John 10:10). It will help educate for dignity and respect encouraging all to live well together (Statement of Entitlement).

At Trinity CE Primary School we ensure that we fully meet the requirement of the statement of entitlement. Please click on the document below to read The Church of England Educational Office's Statement of Entitlement: