VISION STATEMENT FOR RE
Why do we teach RE at Bell Farm?
We believe that teaching RE creatively helps us
- to teach our school’s values
- to help children to explore what they believe
- to learn tolerance and respect
- to help children appreciate the importance of belief on the way people live
- to give children opportunities to encounter Christianity and other world beliefs
- to teach fundamental British values
- to help children to understand different religious perspectives and practices
- to ask challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
How do we achieve this?
We follow the revised Surrey Agreed RE Syllabus. The units across the EYFS, KS1 and KS2 encourage children to learn about and from Christianity and other principal religions in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions and to engage with non-religious worldviews such as Humanism.
In the EYFS topics are based upon children’s own lives and experiences, and introduce pupils to Christianity, and other religions and beliefs represented within their own class and / or school. Key Stage 1 (5-7 year olds) introduces the study of Christianity and aspects of Judaism and Islam and incorporating, where appropriate, consideration of non-religious worldviews. Key Stage 2 (7-11 year olds) units of work are specified for either lower KS2 or upper KS2 to ensure progression. Developing the study of Christianity and aspects of Judaism and Islam, and introducing aspects of Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. It also incorporates, in several units, elements reflecting non-religious worldviews. The Additional Study Units at this Key Stage also begin to explore moral, ethical and philosophical issues. Learning in RE is divided into two distinct but complementary areas: knowledge and understanding and expressing ideas, beliefs.
Quotes from pupils about RE
Y3 pupil “I liked it when we learnt about Jesus and presents at Christmas. Jesus was God’s present to us to make the world a better place.”
“It’s interesting learning that people have different beliefs, why some believe in God and others don’t. It makes you think.” Y3 pupil
Y5 pupil “We had a drama lesson, one of us was a reporter and the other one was Jesus who was being interviewed. It makes you think and you can ask challenging questions. Also writing prayers was fun but hard, you have to really think about the language you use – it’s not a list of I wants but things like blessed be those who are kind to others.”
What support and resources are available for teachers and pupils?
Each classroom has a Bible and there is a wide range of books and artefacts to support curriculum planning and interactive story telling. In addition we have a comic strip graphic Bible to help engage children. The school also has membership to the NATRE (National Association of Teachers of RE) website and a host of online resources.
The school has established close links with our local parish church, St Peter’s, and the associate priest comes in and holds regular collective whole school assemblies. Our pupils join the church for occasions such as Education Sunday and Harvest festival. Classes are encouraged to visit and learn in the church space. Our aim is to make contact with other local faith leaders and invite them to school and encourage year groups to visit them so that when our children transfer to secondary school they will have experienced a range of different faiths and are set up for the multicultural world we live in.
We have also set up an interactive prayer station in the hall for people of all or no faith to express and share their opinions. Every prayer features at least one prayer activity that focuses on an issue of injustice, local or global. We try to ensure that prayer activities are directed upwards towards God, outwards towards the World around us or inwards reflective towards ourselves.