Religious Education
At Hartpury C of E Primary School, we aim to develop children who are motivated and equipped to be courageous advocates for our world, throughout their lives. We seek to develop each child’s understanding, respect, appreciation and responsibility for the world around us, so they can make a difference both now and in the future. The Global Goals for Sustainability are central to our ethos and our Christian Values underpin all aspects of our community as we strive for the children to develop a broad understanding and enjoyment of the world that enables them to be outward looking, resilient and effective citizens of the future.
Statement of Curriculum Intent
At Hartpury C of E Primary School, we aim to ensure that all pupils flourish and live life in its fullness, in line with the 2019 Statement of Entitlement by the Church of England Education Office. We embrace the principle aim of the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE 2017 – 2022:
We believe that Religious Education contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. This in turn inspires them to become positive citizens and courageous advocates for the world around them.
Statement of Curriculum Implementation
We implement RE at Hartpury C of E Primary School in the following ways:
- Children are taught in mixed age classes of two-year groups. With a two year rolling programme, as detailed in our RE Scheme of Work (except for Reception who follow a one year plan).
- The Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in Gloucestershire 2017 – 2022 is used as the basis of our curriculum.
- Understanding Christianity is used as a key resource for the teaching of Christianity.
These two resources have been developed very closely together and complement each other. They have a very carefully designed spiral curriculum that encourages children to develop a wide range of skills and build on their existing knowledge effectively. In using these programmes we aim for the following:
- Pupils learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response and to agree or disagree respectfully.
- Teaching equips pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and beliefs, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities.
- Pupils develop an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in our society, with its diverse religions and beliefs.
- Pupils gain and deploy the skills needed to understand, interpret and evaluate texts, sources of wisdom and authority and other evidence. They learn to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences while respecting the right of others to differ.
- The focus of our curriculum is Christianity. Judaism, Islam and (in KS2) Hinduism are also studied in detail and references are made to a wide range of religions and worldviews, including atheism. Some units of work are thematic in nature and compare ideas and attitudes in multiple religions. These are all mapped in the Scheme of Work.
- Bespoke knowledge Organisers have been developed for the non-Christian and thematic units of work to ensure all staff have a clear understanding of the knowledge required to teach these units and the progression of understanding through the religions is clear.
- Three core elements are used to teach RE: Making Sense of Beliefs, Making Connections and Understanding the Impact. Assessments are carried out under these three headings.
- A wide range of other resources are available for the teaching of RE, including resource boxes for each of the major religions studied, a set of Good News Bibles and a range of books, DVDs and online resources.
- In EYFS and KS1 RE is taught for 36 hours per year. In KS2 it is taught for 45 hours a year.
Statement of Curriculum Impact
Children’s ongoing progress is monitored carefully by teachers using teacher assessment on Insight. This provides a very clear picture of each child’s strengths and weaknesses and enables teachers to put in interventions or extra challenge where necessary.
A programme of monitoring is in place to inform senior and subject leaders of consistency and progression in learning. This includes:
- Professional discussion
- Work scrutiny
- Pupil Conferencing
- Lesson Observations.
