Religious Education

Religious education at Northbrook is led by Mrs Spence

 

Our Curriculum Drivers:  

• HEART Values – Through their RE curriculum, children’s happiness is at heart, as they are engaged, inspired and challenged, encouraged to explore, investigate and be ambitious with their thinking. They will be encouraged to understand how religious beliefs can shape life and behaviour and show respect, empathy and teamwork when listening to and learning about the faith of others and whilst exploring the symbolic practices and religious artefacts of each faith community. 

• Literacy and Language – We use listen and respond in group discussions and ask and answer questions to develop our knowledge.  We practice using religious terminology in every lesson to learn to articulate our understanding and explain our knowledge.  

• Community and Cultural Diversity- We aim to make links with the wider school and local community to help children understand the subject’s importance.  

• Global Citizenship- by providing opportunities for our learning to be based in real-life contexts we engage the children’s curiosity and hope that they respectfully consider the values and beliefs of other people that they meet in life.  We hope that as they grow in understanding of the communities of the world around them, they can reflect on their own values and respect the values and beliefs of others. 

 

Our Aims

At Northbrook Primary Academy, the aim of our Religious Education Curriculum is to ensure our children acquire and develop a knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain: that they learn to 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.

Through our curriculum we aim to ensure children are well prepared for life in our increasingly diverse society and are able to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to make sense of the complex world in which they live so that they can ‘respect religious and cultural differences and contribute to a cohesive and compassionate society’. (RE Review 2013)

Our Religious Education curriculum supports each pupil on their personal journey to answer the question ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and to grow to reflect the overall aims, values, and philosophy of our school as well as meeting the statutory requirements and curriculum information whereby the national curriculum states the legal requirement that: 

'Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which: 

• promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils; and 

• Prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.'

 

The National Curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils:

• 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.

National Curriculum - R.E

Our Learning

At Northbrook Primary Academy Religious Education is taught in accordance with the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus of Religious Education 2016, which follows the requirement of the Education Reform Act 1988 that the syllabus “shall reflect the fact the religious traditions in Great Britain, are in the main Christian, whilst taking into account the teaching and practices of the other principle religion represented in Great Britain” 

The school’s provision for Religious Education is in accordance with the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus and the subject is approached through stories, cross curricular themes, RE topics, festivals and whole school topics, discussion on specific ideas and spontaneous enquiries. 

Alongside Christianity, pupils will also study Islam and the Hindu Dharma, with some aspects of other faiths.  To reflect our school community and pupils belief units are taught about the Jehovah’s Witness faith. 

Each unit on our curriculum plan allows for progression and continuity and enables the pupils to learn from and about the religion being studied and gives them opportunity to share human experience, explore beliefs, values and practices, and relate these to personal meaning. Our pupils are encouraged to respond freely to experiences and questions which have a profound quality and to use a range of different forms of expression to convey their responses. 

Each curriculum unit is broken into the same 4 areas and these form the basis for the progression of skills. 

  • shared human experience - the nature of human being. 

  • Living religious tradition - principal religious traditions encountered in the world. 

  • Beliefs and values - which lie at the heart of these traditions. 

  • The search for personal meaning – a lifelong quest for understanding.

 

 

As with all other areas of the curriculum, Religious Education is taught through a variety of teaching and learning styles. Some units are taught mainly as a single subject study with some integration with other subjects, whilst other units are cross-curricular and the children are encouraged to question, discuss and formulate their own ideas. 

A range of teaching and learning strategies are utilised during the teaching of religious education include to further support the teaching and learning in R.E:

• A knowledge organiser is used at the start of a new module and contains a key to the knowledge we want our children to remember.
• We use create a strong program of enquiry-based learning through our lessons to secure the links to personal meaning and shared experiences.
• Thinking tasks offer challenge and an opportunity to apply learning as well as allowing children to link R.E. learning to their own personal experiences
• All of our R.E. units are cumulatively built and connected through the use of the Lancashire R.E Syllabus and leaders ensure fidelity to this across all classrooms.
• Visits to places of worship, museums or art galleries and the use of representatives from religious traditions as visitors to the class 
• The use of artefacts, big books, posters, videos, artwork and religious texts including instruction on handling these correctly.
• The use of art and drama to enable students to express their ideas in alternative ways.
• The use of music to create an atmosphere or for expression of ideas and emotions.

Inclusion:  

At NPA we teach Religious Education to all children, whatever their ability and individual need. We recognise that in all classes children have a wide range of religious experiences and understanding, and we ensure that we provide suitable learning opportunities for all children. Through our teaching we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make good progress. We strive hard to meet the needs of those pupils with special educational needs, those with disabilities, those with special gifts and talents and we take all reasonable steps to achieve this.  

This includes, where needed, arrangements made for pupils withdrawn from R.E:

All pupils will be given equal opportunities to access this area of the curriculum, but we accept that on some occasions parents may wish to exercise their right of withdrawal. The headteacher will discuss the matter sensitively with any parent who wishes to exercise their right to withdraw their child. 

Collective Worship:  

The daily act of collective worship at Northbrook Primary Academy follows the requirements of the 1988 Education Reform Act. The overall aim of Collective Worship is to invite all pupils to engage in reflection on what really matters in life and to enter into worship if they wish.

Pupils are encouraged to… 

• To consider spiritual and moral issues which are of a wholly or mainly of a Christian character. 
• To celebrate or reflect on things that are of worth. 
• To facilitate the development of a sense of community, of belonging and of sharing. 
• To learn how to be part of large and small gatherings. 
• To celebrate achievements of others within the school community. 

Content of Collective Worship

The law requires acts of worship should be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”. There will be times when other faiths and religious traditions will be explored. Issues will be presented in a variety of ways through stories, poems, songs, role-play, artefacts, radio broadcasts, visitors, power-point presentations, interactive whiteboard activities as  well  as  the  sharing of children’s and adult’s achievements.

collective worship guidance - NPA

 

Impact

Assessment in RE is in line with the NPA assessment policy. At the end of each unit Teacher Assessment is used to consider pupil progress against the two attainment targets ‘Learning about Religion and Human Experiences’ and ‘Learning from Religion and Human Experience’.   

Teachers use the ‘Expected Standards’ document to consider pupil achievement in that particular unit.

Knowledge organisers:

Autumn: 

Spring

Summer:

 

Subject Monitoring

Leaders monitor teaching and learning through pupil voice, staff questionnaires as well as book looks and learning walks and using the online app See Saw to record evidence of learning. The development of the children in school is also monitored through daily informal conversations.

As a result of our whole curriculum, we expect to see all children achieve well by developing knowledge and skills across the curriculum.  But we understand that R.E. brings more than this, and aim to ensure that all children will:

• develop lifelong learning behaviours that help them continue to create and explore in history
• appreciate the possibility of geographical sciences as a career and give them the opportunity to have success in modern Britain.
• be responsible global citizens and courageous advocates of our community through the HEART Values we have instilled in them during their time in school.
• leave our school, fully equipped for the next stage in their learning