RE

Statement of Intent for Religious Education

Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupil’s spiritual, moral social and cultural development. It promotes respect, open mindedness, towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop a sense of identity and belonging. At Brightside we believe that the quality of our Religious Education curriculum should engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society.

We feel passionate about celebrating and opening doors to the religious/spiritual aspects of life. We provide each child with the opportunity for exploration, discovery, experience and growth. In our teaching we believe it is important to plan and provide opportunities for each child to learn about and value their own religious faith and traditions and develop an understanding, respect and sensitivity for those of others. It is our mission to help the child understand that religion and religious questions have been, and are central to many peoples’ lives. We want each child to develop relevant skills and attitudes that prepares them for adult life, employment and lifelong learning.

Implementation for Religious Education

Our RE curriculum follows the Sheffield (SACRE 2024-2029) scheme: The three elements pupils will be taught include:

• Knowledge and understanding of religions and world views through varied experiences and disciplines.
• Expressions and communications of their own ideas and the ideas of others with increasing creativity and clarity.
• Gain and deploy skills increasingly to be able to be reasonable in their responses to religions and world views.

In line with the Early Years Foundation Stage- ‘People, culture and communities’- RE is planned through purposeful play and through a mixture of adult led and child initiated activity. Children talk about similarities and differences between themselves and others among families and communities. They explore, observe and find out about places and objects of different cultures.

In Key Stage 1, we have developed a long term plan for RE to ensure there is coverage. The medium term planning shows RE may be the main subject driver of a thematic topic for a half term; it may be one strand of a thematic topic or it may be a discrete stand-alone unit of work.

Schools are expected to practice RE for at least 36 hours per year. For example 50 minutes a week or shorter sessions implemented through continuous provision. At Brightside Nursery Infant School RE is taught weekly and shorter sessions delivered through collective worship and class assembly times. We also plan theme days every half term.

Our RE curriculum is balanced: pupils learn about Christianity in each year group for 50% of the time dedicated to the subject and a balanced program of learning from other religions is also offered, mainly Islam and Judaism.

RE progression and overview from Early Years to Year 2