RE

(Religious Education)

Intent

At Warley Primary School, we believe that engaging and purposeful RE lessons inspire and encourage children to articulate their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences whilst respecting others’ viewpoints. Our intent is to raise and guide children to be religiously literate, understand the importance and relevance of RE within today’s world, acknowledge how religion can shape our lives, as well as, contribute to personal, moral and social responsibilities.

As a school, it is our aim to ensure all children gain an understanding of the different aspects of RE. To ensure this, we work hard to provide an interesting and varied curriculum that engages and intrigues our children whilst meeting the needs of all backgrounds, cultures and abilities.

Teaching RE provides our children with the opportunity to develop their awareness of the different backgrounds, cultures and traditions within our community. It also provides the opportunities to promote British values, defined as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance for those with different beliefs and backgrounds. Through the development of each unit, pupils gain an understanding of how to discuss and challenge stereotypes and discrimination, as well as celebrate diversity. This contributes to our inclusive school ethos that champions democratic value and human rights in the context of modern Britain. To further support this, we provide a variety of enrichment activities including our bi-annual RE day, trips to local places of worship, as well as, school workshops on world faiths.

Implementation

At Warley Primary School, we plan and deliver our RE lessons around the new Essex SACRE Agreed Syllabus. We use a comprehensive and complete scheme of work, created by the Saffron Academy Trust. This is an enquiry-led, multi-faith syllabus viewed, considered and explored through three distinct lenses:

Theology - Thinking through believing. This is about asking questions that believers would ask. It requires pupils to think like theologians, exploring questions and answers that arise from inside religions and worldviews.

Philosophy - Thinking through thinking. This is about asking questions that thinkers would ask. It requires pupils to think like philosophers or to look at concepts through a philosophical lens.  Pupils will explore questions and answers raised through considering the nature of knowledge, existence and morality.

Human/Social Science - Thinking through living. This is about asking questions that people who study lived reality would ask. It requires pupils to think like human and social scientists. Pupils will explore questions and answers raised in relation to the impact of religions and worldviews on people and their lives.

The importance of, and value of, RE will always be apparent across the school through displays, our bi-annual RE day, enrichment activities and high-quality work in books.

Please click on the link to view our RE Curriculum Overview.

Please click on the link to view our RE Knowledge and Skills Progression Map.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education. If you wish to do this, please complete this form and return it to the office.

Impact

Pupils will leave Warley Primary School, having had the opportunity to deepen their RE understanding in a variety of ways: embracing diversity, displaying tolerance and respect. Pupils’ books will demonstrate that our Religious Curriculum is purposeful and engaging, and progresses year on year.

In order for pupils to become religiously literate, a multi-disciplinary approach is taught through the RE curriculum which will effectively prepare pupils for the studies in Key Stage 3 and beyond.

Our goal is to ensure that the children at Warley Primary School can explain how beliefs and teachings make contributions to the lives of individuals and communities. This is to ensure that pupils are able to make sense of religion and worldviews within their own community and the wider world, begin to understand the complex world in which they live, to consider their own values and views as well as their place in the world.