Subject Overview
RE is a statutory subject of the school curriculum in maintained schools. It is a fundamental subject in the education of pupils in England. It helps to build young people's understanding and appreciation of different beliefs, practices and religion and how these relate to the world that we live in. RE also offers distinctive opportunities to promote pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
Intent
Through RE, children at Rockmount Primary School develop their knowledge of the world faiths, and their understanding and awareness of the beliefs, values and traditions of other individuals, societies, communities and cultures.
We are currently using Kapow Primary’s Religion and worldviews curriculum to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. We aim to ensure that our curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through the scheme, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views. Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in a progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning . By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldviews.
Kapow Primary’s RE scheme of work enables pupils to meet the government guidance, which states that RE must reflect that ‘the religious traditions in Great Britain are, in the main, Christian while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’.
Implementation
The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts. For example, children begin to develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity. This will then support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.
Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’ which will be revisited throughout key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts.
These ‘big questions’ are:
Why are we here?
Why do worldviews change?
What is religion?
How can worldviews be expressed?
How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?
A more specific, focused enquiry question frames the learning across each unit. Both the ‘big questions’ and the focused enquiry question will allow children to explore the content they are studying, make comparisons and links within and across religions and worldviews, and explore their personal views. Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hands-on, allowing children to learn and record their thoughts, answers and ideas in various ways. The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum emphasises the importance of diverse representations within and across religions and worldviews, focusing on real people’s lived experiences of their beliefs.
RE is taught through experiences and enrichment opportunities such as:
handling artefacts
exploring texts
using imaginative play or drama to express feelings and ideas
responding to images, games, stories, art, music and dance
meeting visitors from local religious communities
making visits to religious places of worship where possible, and where not, making use of videos and the internet
taking part in whole school events- (multi-faith days, Harvest Festival, school performances)
participating in moments of quiet reflection
participating in assemblies
using ICT to further explore religion and belief globally
comparing religions and worldviews through discussion
debating and communicating religious belief, worldviews and philosophical ideas and answering and asking ultimate questions posed by these
Impact
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme of work is that children will:
Golden Threads
Photo Gallery
Work Sample Gallery
This week, we had a special Diwali assembly. We invited a Hindu priest, to talk to the children about Diwali which is also known as the 'Festival of Lights'. He spoke to the children about the story of Rama and Sita and about the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness.
The Heartstone Odyssey Project
Year 5 took part in a Croydon project which centres on reading the book ‘The Heartstone Odyssey’. The book deals with the issues of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. This is part of a nationwide initiative which helps to raise discussion on important issues within a safe environment. We are delighted to be included in the first set of schools to take part in this initiative in Croydon. We hope to take you on this journey with us.
Following on from Anti-Bullying week, a group of Year 6 children had the opportunity to talk to Year 4, 5 and 6 about the ‘Heartstone’ project. It Is project that they took part in last year and one of the key themes running through the book was ‘bullying’. The children shared what they learnt from the project.
“I have learnt that you shouldn’t judge people. You should always respect everyone and show kindness.” Ella
“Everyone is different but that is a good thing. The world would be boring if we were all the same. We should celebrate diversity.” Minna
“We need to be thoughtful and understand about the power of our words. We need to work together to make our message stronger.” Bay
We finished the assembly by sharing ideas of how we could show kindness to each other so that we can make our environment a better place to live in.
Chinese New Year!
Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar. The holiday is sometimes called the Lunar new Year because the dates of celebration follow the phases of the moon. This Year at Rockmount Primary School, all children took part in learning more about Chinese New Year and the traditions that go with it. The children produced a wide variety of work related to the celebrations of Chinese New Year. Please find below some of the work the children created!
Pupil Voice
I like RE because I like learning about the beliefs of other people - Darcey
RE helps me to understand my friends beliefs - Sydney
It would be nice for the people in my class to bring in any religious artefacts that they may have at home, this will help with our understanding - Hadeeqah
I think it is important that you respect other people's religions because that means you have respect for your own religion too! - Aidan
It's always important to listen carefully about other people's beliefs because it forms someones life and it's something that can be very important to someone. - Ridwan
It's nice that we are friends with people in our class, even though we believe in different religions.This does not matter to me- Ruby