CHRIST CHURCH CE (VA) JUNIOR SCHOOL
Religious Education
School Vision
‘We seek to transform the lives of our children within a Christian environment, nurturing the wellbeing of each child, promoting the highest academic achievement and instilling a lifelong love of learning.’
Intent
I alone know the plans I have for you; plans for the future you hope for. Jeremiah 29:11
God’s plans for us are limitless. He knows us best and plans for us to reach our unique and individual potential, shaped in the palm of His hand. This potential may reveal itself when we least expect it, just like God’s love being revealed to us. We believe that we are shaping children, not just in the present, but also for the future – enabling them to be global citizens in God’s rapidly changing world, celebrating life in all its fullness.
We promote Christian Values throughout school and this is underpinned by our RE curriculum. We learn about Christian Values through the example of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible. By offering children positive encounters with the Christian faith, we believe that we are equipping them to be the person God wants them to be. We believe that excellent RE teaching is the key to enable children to grow in faith, learning and love. RE contributes to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of children and staff. These aspects of development can be found in all areas of the curriculum, underpinned by our distinct Christian ethos.
Through our RE curriculum, we want to develop children’s understanding of Christianity, both as a contribution to their own understanding of the world and their own experience within it. We use ‘Understanding Christianity’ to integrate pupils’ developing theological understanding with their own self-awareness and understanding of the world around them.
The aims of Understanding Christianity are:
- To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, by exploring core theological concepts.
- To enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills in making sense of biblical texts and understanding their impact in the lives of Christians.
- To develop pupils’ abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion and belief (particularly Christianity), of themselves, the world and human experience.
Implementation
Understanding Christianity
The teaching of the Christianity strand of our RE syllabus is focused around the Understanding Christianity resource and aims to support pupils as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. Understanding Christianity offers a clear, coherent approach to teaching and learning about Christianity in RE. It is based around a selection of core Christian concepts and structured across the primary age range to support pupils in deepening their understanding.
The Big Frieze:
The Big Frieze is displayed in every classroom. This is referred to during every unit. The core concepts are expressed in the Bible and lived out by Christian people each day. These big ideas reveal God’s salvation plan - the big story. The emphasis is on the children gaining knowledge about and understanding the Christian Concepts of:
God – Creation – Fall – People of God – Incarnation – Gospel – Salvation – Kingdom of God
RE lessons
Retrieval:
Children are encouraged to retrieve previously gained knowledge and ask or answer relevant questions in relation to their thinking and level of understanding.
Vocabulary:
Children are introduced to key vocabulary during each lesson. This is identified alongside key questions on unit introduction sheets. These are words that the children should encounter, learn and use in the lessons. Children will be challenged to learn the meaning of these words and to apply them correctly and in context. Teachers may provide children with actions to match each of these words, to support the children in remembering them.
Read, / Explore the Text:
In every lesson, our children will read. The reading can be incorporated into any aspect of the lesson. We believe reading is the key to all learning, so have therefore made reading a priority in every lesson. Bible stories and references are read that directly link to the unit being taught. Children are given opportunities to consider the content and importance of the text. They will be asked questions about the content and be able to offer their ideas and opinions. It is important that you During lessons teachers point out where the text fits in the big story, using the big frieze.
Discover the impact:
Teachers use key texts or experiences to lead children to discover the impact of religious beliefs on people’s lives and in what ways particular Christian teachings are lived out. How are the beliefs that arise from the text making a difference in people’s lives? How are the beliefs that arise from the text making a difference in the world?
Make the Connection:
Jesus said, ‘Come follow me, live your lives the way God wants you to.’ How do the text and its impact connect to the children’s own experiences? Activities are planned that make a link and give pupils an opportunity to respond, ask questions, share ideas and see the relevance in their own lives.
Dive Deeper:
Teachers will pose ‘Big Questions’ which challenge pupils to think more deeply, increasing their knowledge and understanding.
Teaching and Learning Strategies
A variety of teaching and learning strategies are used in the teaching and learning of RE. The children work in a variety of ways depending on the purpose of the work involved. They may work individually; they may undertake shared work as a group or in pairs; often they will work in a whole-class situation, where they will be encouraged to respect and appreciate the contribution made by others. Because of the wide variety of aspects covered in the teaching of R.E., there are many ways in which the work may be approached and consolidated. Sometimes a whole lesson may be given over to discussion and debate; at other times written work may be appropriate. Active learning techniques are important in many aspects of this subject, artwork, role-play, dance, music, poetry, technology, may all be appropriate means of teaching and learning in R.E.
Use of resources
RE lead and class teachers are to ensure that they have all the required resources to teach lessons. This may include quality sources or teacher knowledge textbooks. Teachers to discuss with RE lead if any extra resources are required. A stock of high-quality picture books and challenging texts are available in a central store alongside current journals and other relevant teaching literature to support.
Books & Class RE Learning Journeys
Children have their own RE books and the class staff maintain an RE Learning Journey. All work is to be dated and learning outcomes are to relate to key expectations or concepts for the unit being taught. Teachers have high expectations of presentation. Children record their knowledge, experiences and understanding in a variety of ways, through writing, artwork, discussions etc. Sometimes work will be recorded in class scrapbooks, evidencing experiences and learning which has taken place. Photographs are often included.
Assessment
Assessment of Religious Education is continuously used to inform teaching. Teachers assess children during lessons. At the end of each unit teachers complete a unit assessment sheet. They make judgements in relation to individuals attainment against the key objectives of each unit of work. These judgements are then used to make an overall summative judgment for the unit of work for each child. The RE lead is responsible for analysis of outcomes and assessment data and for monitoring RE progress and attainment across the school.
Impact
As a result of RE teaching, we aim to enable pupils to:
- talk with passion about RE learning, showing that they enjoy and are inspired by their RE lessons.
- demonstrate an understanding of the school’s Christian Values, to know what these look like in practice and to apply this understanding to help make everyday choices.
- know about and understand Christianity as a living, global faith that influences (and has influenced) the lives of people worldwide.
- feel able to talk openly about their beliefs and values in lessons and to grow in their faith.
- talk with understanding about God’s Salvation Plan and develop a sense of chronology when talking about the Bible.
- develop a respect and understanding for the other major world religions and world views, allowing them to celebrate the diversity of our multicultural world.
- develop religious vocabulary enabling them to express their thoughts and beliefs as well as exploring the beliefs of others with respect.
- develop their understanding of the idea of advocacy, to know how they can challenge injustice and how they can help to make the world a better place.
- reflect upon their own learning, identifying successes and aspects they would like to find out more about.
- progress appropriately in their knowledge and understanding of Christianity. In most cases this would be children working at or above the expected level for their age.
- mature spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to become well-rounded successful citizens in future life and have a positive impact on their friends, family, local and wider community.