Religious Education
Intent:
Implementation:
At St John’s Church School, we believe that Religious Education is central to our being. It is a cornerstone for the school’s distinctive dimension. It provides the opportunity to explore a major and distinctive dimension of what it means to be a person: the search for meaning and value in a wondrous and ever changing world. R.E. offers pupils the chance to raise and reflect on perennial questions about life. In doing this, it draws on the rich history of religious traditions in Britain, giving prominence to Christianity reflecting the fact that we are a voluntary aided school. Our religious education curriculum aims to fund the expansion of pupil’s own spiritual/philosophical principles and beliefs as well as facilitate opportunities for children to make reasoned and informal judgements about religious issues.
Religious Education is taught in an integrated way with a cross curricular approach and in half termly RE days. The Agreed syllabus has 2 attainment targets. AT1 involves learning about religions and AT2 allows learning from these religions, both of these are developed through enquiry based learning with 2/3s Christianity whilst 1/3 being other faiths.
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At St John’s Church School, teachers use “Understanding Christianity” (Christian Education Publications) and “The Emmanuel Project” to enhance our teaching and learning.
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Our pupils learn from interactive, creative and memorable experiences that provide them opportunities to respect diverse views and interpretations of Christianity and will deepen their understanding of God as encountered and taught by Christians. The 8 units of Christian study are: God, Creation, Fall, People of God, Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation and Kingdom of God.
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Alongside this, we believe it is our duty to create opportunities for our pupils to have an accurate and increasing understanding of world religions and world views. As a result, our pupils will gain greater insight into the world in which they are growing up. They will also be able to respect the faith of others and develop a deeper understanding of their own beliefs and practices. These outcomes must contribute to harmonious relationships within and between communities, promoting social inclusion and combating prejudice. Other faiths studied across the school consist of; Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Humanism.
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Religions studied in each year group:
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Year 1 Christianity and Judaism
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Year 2 Christianity, Judaism and Islam
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Year 3 Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism
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Year 4 Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduism and Islam
Year 5 Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam
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Year 6 Christianity, Islam, Humanism and Hinduism
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Impact:
The impact of our Religious Education curriculum is to develop positive attitudes of respect towards other people who hold views and beliefs different from their own; living in a society of diverse religion. Pupils can develop skills to analyse, infer and apply the Bible text, as well as recognise that faith is a certain way of understanding and responding to God and the world. Our curriculum facilitates opportunities for pupils to explain the diverse traditions of the Christian community, articulate a well-informed response to Christianity and respect those of all faiths in their search for God. Children are able to analytically reflect upon areas of shared belief and practice, reflect and express their views on a human's journey and purpose.