Intent

RE in Devon schools develops children’s knowledge and understanding of Christianity (which is taught throughout each key stage of learning) and the other principal religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.

We provide a spiralling curriculum, which allows children to revisit and develop core concepts, and ideas which will develop them into good citizens of society and prepare them for the culture capitol.  Children will appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and our behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

In essence are aiming to help our children develop respect and sensitivity for all people and to understand more about the importance of religion in today’s world

Religious education provokes challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.

RE contributes to children’s spiritual development by:-

• Discussing and reflecting on questions of meaning and truth such as the origins of the universe, good and evil, life after death, beliefs about God and humanity and values such as justice, honesty and truth.

• Learning about and reflecting on important concepts and experiences such as love, trust, forgiveness, obedience and sacrifice.
• Valuing relationships and developing a sense of belonging.
• Considering how religions and beliefs regard the value and purpose of human beings, the importance of the environment and the significance of emotions such as love, anger, joy, jealousy, happiness and pain.

RE contributes to children’s moral development by:-

• Enabling children to value themselves and others.
• Exploring the influence of family, friends and other sources on moral choices.
• Considering what is of ultimate value both to children and within religious traditions.
• Developing an understanding in key beliefs and teachings in religion and values and moral choices.

• Considering ethical issues especially justice which promote racial and religious respect.
• Reflecting on the importance of rights and responsibilities and developing a sense of conscience.

RE contributes to children’s social development by:-

• Considering how religious and other beliefs lead to particular actions and concerns.
• Reflecting on the importance of friendship and positive relationships.

RE contributes to children’s cultural development by:-

• Encountering people, stories, artefacts and resources from differing cultures.
• Promoting respect for all, combating prejudice and discrimination.
• Challenging stereotypes of religion and beliefs.

RE and the use of language

RE can also make an important contribution to children’s use of language by enabling them to:-

• Acquire and develop a specialist vocabulary
• Communicate their ideas with clarity.
• Listen and respond to the views and ideas of others.
• Be inspired by the power and beauty of language.
• Write in different styles such as poetry, diaries and extended writing.
• Highlight their own ideas and those of others.

Implementation

Bought into new syllabus, which is being taught across federation.

CPD delivered to all staff on how to use planning and ideas for teaching lessons.

New MTP devised.

New resources being bought to aid teaching.

Observations of lessons from subject leaders.

Termly learning walks to check consistency.

Book/ Learning Journal scrutinies.

Assessment

• EYFS assess against 40-60 of the EYFSP and the ELG’s The world and People in Communities
• KS1 use formative assessment (see planning)
• KS2 Elicitation Tasks and End of unit task to assess learning made
• Target Tracker (see recent data figures in file).
• AFL during lessons.

Impact

By end of KS2 children are achieving 90% or above of expected standards.

Due to the spiralling curriculum and all staff following MTP, children revisit different religions as they grow from Foundation to Year 6 to add layers and understanding of these matters.

Our Children develop respect and sensitivity for all people

and understand more about the importance of religion in today’s world which they can talk about in other subjects such as PSHE.

Next Steps

Future plans for RE include devising more challenging activities for our more able children in RE and developing a wider range of resources. We also want to increase the role of visitors from different faiths visitors to enhance our children’s learning.