Mary Exton Primary School

RE

Mrs. Vincent-Lake and Mrs. Dennis are our RE Subject Leads

At Mary Exton, we believe that it is important that the children learn from and about a range of religions, so they have a better understanding of the world we live in.  By exploring how religious beliefs shape life, behaviour and decisions the children will become inquisitive, mindful and respectful.  They have the opportunity to make connections between their own values whilst asking deeper questions about the world around them. The aim is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions too: Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism.

Curriculum Overview

Skills Progression

Subject Leader Action Plan

We use the Agreed Syllabus for Religions Education developed by Hertfordshire County Council.  Within this syllabus there are 8 strands that need to be covered within a Key Stage.

  As a school we have chosen to divide the strands – the lower year groups start with the easier concepts which are then built upon in the upper years by asking the children to reflect, inquire and think of the broader aspect of each religion; thereby ensuring that all strands are taught by the end of Year 2, 4 and 6.

 The table below identifies the strands and shows how we have divided them:

It is important that the children learn about a range of religions whilst also having the opportunity to revisit and further develop their understanding at an age appropriate level. The table shows which year groups study each religion and in what term. 

So as not to confuse Year 1/2 by introducing 2 religions in one term we have decided to lay the foundations for Christianity and make links with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE, in promoting social awareness and understanding in our children.   The other classes, and KS1 beginning in the Spring Term, follow the same pattern of Term 1 cover a principal religion and Term 2 develop their understanding of Christianity.

Also, as a school we will be focusing on one concept per year.  This will be celebrated during the week of World Religion day in January and the concept for 2023 will be – Creation.

RE is taught for 1 hour a week by either the RE coordinator or HLTA who oversees the delivery of the subject across both key stages which allows for progression, a deeper subject knowledge of religions and helps us see the bigger picture of RE in our school and how to develop the subject further.

In addition, the R.E. subject leader will be given training and the opportunity to keep developing their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding, so they can support curriculum development and their colleagues throughout the school.

Assessment of R.E. will be in line with the whole school policy.

The desired impact is that children will have a stronger awareness of the world around them and will be mindful of the views of others. They will also feel they are valued as individuals and that their beliefs are valued and celebrated too.  How the subject is taught allows for creativity, achievement, confidence and enjoyment with the aim to develop inquisitive minds and by the nature of the subject it encourages children to share their beliefs within a safe, accepting environment.

 RE is an invaluable subject within the local, national and global world which all our children are a part of and as such it is important that we prepare our children as best we can.

Enrichment