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Curriculum Intent
At Enfield Academy, our intent is to ensure that Religious Education (RE) contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life; beliefs about God; ultimate reality; issues of right and wrong; and what it means to be human.
In RE, our pupils will learn about and from religions and worldviews in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. They learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response, and to agree or disagree respectfully.
The RE Curriculum will equip pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities. It will develop in pupils an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in our society with its diverse religions and worldviews. Pupils will gain and deploy the skills needed to understand, interpret and evaluate texts, sources of wisdom and authority and other evidence. They will learn to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences while respecting the right of others to differ.
RE, British Values and SMSC
Enfield Academy actively promotes the British values of:
- democracy
- the rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect
- tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
At Enfield, we follow the curriculum within the locally agreed syllabus, the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus for RE. The aim of this syllabus is to produce pupils who are religiously literate and able to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and belief.
Our RE curriculum provides a balance between three disciplines. These are Theology, Philosophy and Human/Social Sciences (or Believing, Living and Thinking).
RE lessons offer a structured and safe space during curriculum time for reflection, discussion, dialogue and debate. Excellent teaching of RE enables pupils to learn to think for themselves about British values. In RE, pupils learn the skills and develop attitudes that help protect themselves and others from harm throughout their lives. Actively promoting British values means challenging opinions or behaviours in school and the wider community, which are contrary to British values.
Key areas of enquiry in our curriculum:
God: What do people believe about God?
Being human: How does faith and belief affect the way people live their lives?
Community, worship and celebration: How do people express their religion and beliefs?
Life journey rites of passage: How do people mark important events in life?
Early Years Foundation Stage
Pupils are introduced to the concept of religions through discussions about the ‘specialness’ of people, places and things. Pupils are taught about traditions, beliefs and world views outside of their own experiences through exploring other cultures and practices in the wider world.
RE contributes in these ways to the specific areas of the early learning goals:
Communication and language
Children:
· respond creatively, imaginatively and meaningfully to memorable experiences;
· use a religious celebration as a stimulus and talk about the special events associated with it;
· learn about important religious celebrations through artefacts, stories, music, etc.
Personal, Social and emotional development (PSED)
Children:
· use some stories from religious traditions as a stimulus to reflect on their own experiences and explore them
· use role play as a stimulus and talk about some of the ways that people show love and concern for others and why this is important
· think about issues of right and wrong and how humans help one another
· demonstrate a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others
· show a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people
· show an understanding of what is right, wrong and why.
Literacy
Children:
· listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs, music, rhymes and poems and make up some of their own
· extend their vocabulary, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words.
Understanding the world
Children:
· begin to learn and become aware of their own cultures, beliefs and those of other people
· ask questions about religion and culture as they encounter them in everyday experiences
· visit places of worship, learn new words associated with these places and show respect towards them · talk about similarities and differences between themselves and others, among families, communities and traditions.
Expressive arts and design
Children:
· explore and play with a wide range of media and materials and have opportunities and encouragement to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings through a variety of activities
· use religious artefacts as a stimulus to enable them to think about and express meanings associated with the artefact.
Key Stage One
During this key stage, pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through religion and belief as well as wider learning themes. They are introduced to other principle religions and can reflect on prior learning as they progress through the units. Christianity and Islam are in focus.
Key Stage Two
During this key stage, pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through deeper enquiry into known religions and secular world views. Pupils consider the impact of beliefs and practices in greater detail and respond to questions that are more philosophical. In KS2, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam are in focus.
Implementation
In order to make Religious Education a lively, active subject, we employ a variety of teaching methods including art, music, discussion, the development of thinking skills, drama, the use of artefacts, pictures, videos, stories and the use of periods of stillness and reflection. Where possible, we want our pupils to have opportunities to encounter local faith communities through visits to local places of worship or visits from members of local faith communities.
We have designed a long-term programme for RE, which reflects the locally Agreed Syllabus and which enables effective learning in mixed age classes. We teach RE as a discrete subject in blocked time across a week each half term, so that children can immerse themselves in the culture, traditions and beliefs of the major world religions, while enjoying time to reflect upon their own beliefs and practices and the greater questions of meaning and purpose in life.
Impact
Children are highly skilled to discuss, think deeply and ask challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life; beliefs about God; ultimate reality; issues of right and wrong; and what it means to be human.
Pupils have a deep knowledge and understanding of religions and beliefs.
They leave school, having learned to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, able to express their insights in response, and to agree or disagree.
They can keep themselves safe from the risk of radicalisation.
They are instilled with British values and a courage to stand up against those who show disrespect for such values, through ignorance and fear.