RE

Religious Education at King's Court First School

Our Vision

Here at King’s Court, we strive for our children to be reflective theologians.  Our religious education lessons will provoke challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life and beliefs about God.  The children will develop respect for others, including people of different faiths or no faith, and with different beliefs, and will help to challenge prejudice.  Our RE lessons will encourage empathy, generosity and compassion which allow children to embrace the diverse global community in which they live. 

Intent

At King’s Court, we aim for all children to develop their religious literacy.  This requires children to gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews. Our RE curriculum aims to support the emotional, spiritual and cultural growth of our pupils. Pupils are taught to respect each other's differences, and through RE they are able to explore those differences and similarities further through in-depth discussions about morality, beliefs and opinions about the wider world.

The non-statutory 2013 National Curriculum Framework for RE states that children should:

• Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews
• Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews
• Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews.

In addition to the above, we aim for our children at King’s Court to:

• Develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally
• Reflect on their own beliefs and sense of identity
• Be discerning about the many attitudes and opinions they will encounter.

WHY is RE important? What's special about it here?

RE is important as it gives children an understanding of the different beliefs and practices in the world today.  By learning about faiths, children will develop empathy and acceptance.

Therefore, our aims are to ensure children experience a wide breadth of study and have, by the end King’s Court, long-term memory of an ambitious body of procedural and semantic knowledge.

Our curriculum content and maps are carefully crafted and available on our website

Implementation

How do we teach RE here?

At King’s Court, RE Lessons are planned and implemented according to the Pan-Berkshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education, which enables pupils to gradually develop an understanding of belief systems around the world.  The syllabus is based on “big questions” relating to the three strands of RE: Belonging, Believing and Behaving.

The way in which these questions are approached can be differentiated from class to class, and are planned/implemented at the class teacher’s discretion. Due to the nature of the subject, the school’s development plan requires teachers to plan in opportunities for discussion in RE, so that pupils feel safe in expressing their own ideas, and have the chance to explore the opinions or beliefs of others. For Key Stage One and Two, it is recommended that just one of the mandatory religions is studied alongside Christianity in each year group.

In the EYFS, pupil’s experiences of RE are experiential and thematic; focussing on national & international celebrations and experiencing the different ways people can celebrate holidays around the world.

R.E Curriculum

In their first year at King's Court, the children will be given opportunities to interact with Christianity and other religions through their continuous provisions. Continuous provisions in Early Years are regularly rotated, and are often 'themed' based on celebrations across the world to give the children a 'taster' of festivals such as Diwali, Christmas, Shrove Tuesday and Chinese New Year. The interaction that these pupils receive ensures that they have the chance to ask questions, discuss and experience these festivals in a practical, play based way. 

Once our children enter Key Stage One, their understanding of Religions across the world begin to develop through the teaching of Christianity and one other religion. Each session is carefully managed to ensure that pupils feel trusted and respected, with an emphasis being on discussion-based learning. 

In Key Stage Two, the pupils will continue their learning about Christianity and learn about two different religions (different to the one they learn about in Key Stage One.) This ensures that pupils leave King's Court with a broad, balanced understanding of Religious belief systems and are equipped with the appropriate skills and knowledge to form their own views about the world around them. 

ALL schools have the statutory obligation to teach Religious Education to ALL pupils. 

RE should be taught to all pupils in full-time education in schools, except for those withdrawn at the written request of their parents.

(Reference ‘Education Act’ 1944, ‘RE in English Schools: Non-Statutory Guidance 2010, DCSF)

Impact

The successful approach at King’s Court results in an engaging, high-quality religious education that provides children with the foundations and knowledge for understanding the world.

Frequent, continuous and progressive learning - both inside and outside the classroom is embedded throughout the RE curriculum. Whether it be through workshops, trips or interactions with experts and local organisations such as faith leaders and the parish church, children understand the impact of religion on lives.

At King’s Court, we demonstrate the success of our ambitious RE curriculum as follows:

Assessments for R.E at King’s Court are made based on ‘Expected Outcomes’ set out by the Pan-Berkshire Agreed Syllabus. These outcomes can be evidenced in a variety of ways, and should be explored through discussions, writing, workshops, visitors and trips to ensure a broad and balanced experience of the subject.

 Concrete ways of seeing the impact of what our children achieve in RE:

• Development of an informed understanding of religions and ‘Big Questions’ through before and after mind maps (Cold task and Hot task).
• First hand experiences provided via visitors coming into school, workshops and field trips.
• AfL practices such as peer and self-assessment, immediate feedback, helping pupils understand where they are in their learning, where they are going and how to get there and other activities to directly support progress.
• Pupil’s books are scrutinised across teams and by the subject leader to monitor standards and progression.
• Pupil Voice - Images and videos of the children’s practical learning, Interviewing the pupils about their learning, during and after their experiences. Their opinions and interests are valued and included.
• Photographic evidence of the learning that has taken place or currently taking place. Displays around the learning environment reflecting learning through the historical topics and themes.

Assessments for RE are made over a period of time and are based on the evidence of more than one activity. They are made through observation, discussion and written work. The children are also involved in self-evaluating their learning. Children’s achievements are reported formally during the school year and informally at parent and teacher interviews.

A child's perspective:

'I like researching about Hindu gods because it's really fun and interesting.'

'We're using teamwork to build up information.'

'My teacher asked me about my prized possession so I drew my teddy bear who is really special to me.'

Are your RE lessons exciting and interesting? Yes, 100%!

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