Religion and world views (RE)

Religion and World Views at Barrington Primary School

Our Subject Leader for RE is Mrs I Carlin

Article 14 (freedom of thought, belief and religion)

Every child has the right to think and believe what they choose and also to practise their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Governments must respect the rights and responsibilities of parents to guide their child as they grow up. 

Intent

As a rights respecting school, Religious education should play a fundamental role in developing the children at Barrington.

Religious Education should give children perspective, meaning and value to the situations that they find themselves in, every day. It should challenge and question different viewpoints to help to create tolerant, critical thinking and well-rounded children. Children should be encouraged to think critically about different aspects of different religions, drawing on the differences and similarities between them.

Due to an ever-shrinking planet, children should understand different world views and the history that has helped to craft them. Enabling children to see the beauty in difference should be at the forefront of RE teaching along with equipping them with the skills to express their personal views considerately and respectfully – empowering them to be positive members of society.

Teaching should embed a variety of knowledge and understanding and expose children to a wide range of religions and viewpoints. They should be taught the skills needed to respectfully question other viewpoints as well as their own – skills that should be taught throughout all subjects.

The ultimate aim for RE lessons should be to allow children to define their own beliefs and understand that it is okay for other beliefs to differ.

We believe that to have fully inclusive RE lessons at Barrington, we should recognise the importance of non-religious world views so we refer  to the subject as 'Religion and Worldviews' in our school.

Implementation

At Barrington we follow the KAPOW scheme of work under the title of Religion and World Views.  The units studied focus on questions about life which enable children to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live. 

The Agreed Syllabus enables children to develop skills through:

Attainment Target 1 - learning about a religion (i.e. the facts)    

Attainment Target 2 - learning from a religion; relating what is learnt to the children's own lives

The Curriculum is divided into three key areas of learning which include:

1) Believing - Religious beliefs, teaching, sources, questions about meaning, purpose and truth

2) Expressing - Religious and spiritual forms of expression; questions about identity and diversity

3) Living - Religious practices and ways of living; questions about values and commitments.

We do this by intertwining three strands of learning into our lessons:

• Disciplinary Knowledge
• Substantive Knowledge
• Personal Knowledge

These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build on children's conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and us e a range of disciplinary lenses.  Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through vaired and engaging learning experiences. 

Our scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon.  Children prgogress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and discplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts.

Children begin to develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key Stage 1, focussing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity.  This will support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key Stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further, the diverse nature  of lived experience.

Each unit includes overarching 'bg questions' which will be revisited throughout children's time in school; thus allowing ppuils to apply their breadth and depth of learning across various concepts.  These big questions are:

• Why are we here?
• Why do worldviews change?
• What is religion?
• How can worldviews be expressed?
• How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
• How can we live together in harmony, if we have different worldviews?

Curriculum Overview

Religion and World Views Curriculum Overview

 Impact

Our curriculum ensures that children will:

• Know and understand religious concepts relating to beliefs, practices, communtiy and belonging, wisdom and guidance
• Develop an understanding of the influence of organised and personal worldviews on individuals, communities, countries and globally
• Understnad some of the ways religions and worldviews are studied (disciplinary knowledge)
• Develop understanding of their relationship with the content studied, being able to talk about their assumptions and preconceptions (personal knowledge)
• Build secure vocabulary which allows them to talk confidently and fluently about their learning
• Answer questions about worldviews through an enquiry based approach including investigating, interpreting, evaluation, applying and expressing opinions
• Talk about the similarities and differences between their own and others beliefs with respect and open mindedness
• Understand the lived experience of religious and non-religious worldviews to be diverse within and between people and communities 
• Develop an understanding of the ways in which personal and organsied worldviews may develop and change across time and place

Right to withdraw:

RE is provided for all pupils and is inclusive and broad minded.  Parents do have the right to withdraw their child from RE:  If you wish to do so, please make an appointment with the Headteacher and/or the RE subject leader.  The school does not support selective withdrawal from RE lessons.