Sherwood Park Primary School

‘Every child has an enquiring mind about the world and their place in it.'

There are no presumptions made as to the religious backgrounds and beliefs and values of the children and the staff. We value the religious background of all members of the school community and hope that this will encourage individuals to share their own experiences with others freely. All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school, and a faith community. We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils. We promote teaching in Religious Education that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children. 

Intent

RE explores big questions about life, in order to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how we live, so that pupils can make sense of religion and worldviews, and reflect on their own ideas and ways of living.

The pupils should

• Learn about religion
• Learn from religion

The main aims for RE

• To equip children with a knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and world views

• To enable children to flourish as citizens in a community
• To help children work out how to live a good life
• To understand their own world view and how that affects their view of the world
• To promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
• To ensure that all staff have high quality professional competence throughout all areas of the PE curriculum.
• To raise the profile of R.E. throughout the school.

Implementation

At Sherwood Park Primary School, Religious Education plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE and SRE.

RE can be taught through:

• Role play and drama;

• Story telling;

• Discussion and debate;

• Topic work;

• Reflection;

• Use of visitors;

• Use of the local community

• A variety of media

Sherwood Park primary follows the agreed Bexley Syllabus, and the following religions are studied: 

• Christians
• Muslims
• Jewish people
• Hindus

Impact

We want our children to be:

• Creative
• Thoughtful
• Rich in knowledge
• Active
• Open- hearted and broad minded
• Experiential – engaged (e.g. carrying out visits/ visitors etc)

At Sherwood Park Primary School

• Pupils learn a great deal about different religions and why people choose, or choose not to follow a religion
• Pupils are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world
• R.E. acts as a hub between social aspects of learning, science and geography. Through R.E. our children are developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life, which they are then able to communicate to the wider community
• R.E. offers our children the means by which to understand how other people choose to live and to understand why they choose to live in that way.

During EYFS

• Children begin to explore the world of religion in terms of special people, books, times, places and objects and visiting places of worship.
• Children listen to and talk about stories.
• They are introduced to specialist words and use their senses in exploring religious beliefs, practices and forms of expression.
• They reflect upon their own feelings and experiences.
• They use their imagination and curiosity to develop their appreciation and wonder of the world in which they live.

Key Stages 1 and 2

During Key Stage 1, pupils explore:

• Christians
• Muslims
• Jewish people

During Key Stage 2, pupils explore:

• Christians
• Muslims
• Jewish people
• Hindus

Together with other world views where appropriate.

Therefore, by the end of Key Stage 2 four of the major world faiths will have been studied. There are also opportunities to compare and contrast the beliefs and teachings of different faiths.