Intent
At SPWP, we intend to use RE to enable children to become inquisitive, resilient, respectful, and accepting individuals who are able to express and articulate their own ideas and insights about the diverse world that we live in. Our role is to ensure that children aspire to become the best individuals that they can be in order to contribute to our school, our community and the wider world in a positive way.
We believe RE can play a powerful role in children’s education. By teaching children about a range of religions and world views, we aim not only to help children better understand the world around them but also to help them develop their own ideas, values and identities. Children are given time and space in our RE curriculum for personal reflection as they tackle challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs and issues of right and wrong, among other themes. Importantly, children learn to articulate their thoughts and beliefs clearly while also being respectful of others whose views may differ. For this reason, our RE curriculum is an important component in how we promote our school values, and indeed wider British values, among our children.
Key R.E. themes taught at SPWP
| Year | Themes |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | Christian religious communities
Celebrating special and sacred times |
| Year 2 | Muslim and Jewish religious communities
Sacred books |
| Year 3 | Religious beliefs about God
The religious practice of prayer |
| Year 4 | Hindu religious communities
The religious practice of festivals |
| Year 5 | Religious practices about places of worship
Muslim religious communities and beliefs |
| Year 6 | Religious beliefs about Jesus
What matters to Christians and Humanists? |
Implementation
At SPWP, we follow the Tower Hamlets Agreed Syllabus for RE 2022-2027. This syllabus has been carefully designed to take account of the unique community in which we live, as well as reflecting the traditions and diversity within wider British society. The syllabus provides a well-balanced RE curriculum which offers learning about religious beliefs, their expression, the practices of religious believers and time for children to consider their own thoughts. The curriculum is made up of 3 religious lines of enquiry: discovery, exploring and connecting. We have adapted the SACRE curriculum to our school by specifying the precise content of each unit of work from the suggested range given in the SACRE curriculum. This has allowed us to ensure that the content is logically sequenced and appropriate links are made with other areas of our curriculum.
Our RE curriculum is designed to engage and enthuse learners. We believe that it is an essential area of study which ensures that children are well prepared for life in a world where there are a multitude of viewpoints. We enable the children to make their own informed decisions and to have the confidence to voice their views through our use of oracy and rich dialogue in the classroom. It is a subject for all pupils, whatever their own family background and personal beliefs and practices.
We aim to develop pupils’ understanding of world faiths and other beliefs by exploring their commonality and diversity. There is both depth and breadth of study and teachers present both disciplinary knowledge and substantive facts in each unit. The RE curriculum aims to nurture pupils’ awareness of diversity as well as sensitivity to the questions and challenges that different views and cultures can present. We all share a common humanity and we share our view of the world with an understanding of others’ views.
We aim to provide our children with religious literacy where they will develop their knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other religious traditions and world views and explore their responses to life's challenges. This gives pupils the knowledge and skills to flourish both within their own community and as members of a diverse and global society.
RE at SPWP helps prepare our children for the future by:
- Developing their awareness of the fundamental questions raised by human experiences, and of how religious teachings can relate to them;
- Allowing them to respond to questions by referring to the teachings and practices of religions and other belief systems, relating them to their own understanding and experience;
- Reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study.
