Our RE Lead is Lizzi Geeson

Religious Education at Firfield Primary School

Curriculum Intent:

Religious education provokes challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about faith, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.

At Firfield Primary School the RE curriculum aims to give the children in our care knowledge and understanding of the principal religions, these are Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.   RE is taught within a local, national and global context. 

Our school RE curriculum offers children opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development.  It considers the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures. In learning about Religion, children find out about different beliefs and teachings, practices and ways of life and how religions express themselves in different ways. In learning about different religions children are able to feed their Creative and Curious Minds in order to become World Citizens.

Curriculum Implementation:

At Firfield, we strive for all children to become Ambitious Thinkers. Religious Education is more than just developing children’s knowledge and understanding. We seek to develop children’s skills in investigation, enquiry, communication, interpretation, analysis, reflection and evaluation.  These are important life skills for children to develop and use in their daily lives.

 

These include:

• Investigation/enquiry - finding out what people believe, how their beliefs affect the way they live and the different ways people express their beliefs;
• Communication - sharing their ideas and those within religions and beliefs in a lively, informed way including different styles of writing, oral contributions and the use of ICT;
• Reflection - ensuring the children have planned time to consider and reflect on their understanding and opinions;
• Interpretation - recognising and talking about religious symbols, stories and sacred texts;
• Analysis and evaluation - developing their own views and ideas, recognising the views of others.

At Firfield Primary School, Religious Education is taught throughout focused RE weeks over the year and provide many opportunities for children to engage and achieve.

These include:

• Visiting local places of worship and receiving visitors from faith communities;
• Using art, music, dance and drama;
• Children experiencing times of quiet reflection to develop their own thoughts and ideas;
• Using stories, pictures and photographs;
• Using artefacts to help children develop their understanding of religious beliefs and forms of expression;
• Discussing religious and philosophical questions giving reasons for their own beliefs and those of others;
• Developing the use of ICT (particularly DVDs and the internet) in helping children’s awareness of religions and beliefs
• Developing the use of outdoor learning as an integral part of the RE curriculum.

 

Curriculum Impact:

When pupils leave Firfield Primary School, we want their learning of religious concepts to enable them to feel confident when encountering others in the world as confident, self-aware, global citizens. We hope that their learning in religious concepts will enable them to become curious about the world around them, to ask critical and perceptive questions about what people believe and their cultural and religious practices, to enable them to form balanced educated opinions, identify bias. Most importantly, they will have a better understanding of other ideas, an appreciation of religious and cultural diversity and the importance of respecting others’ beliefs and traditions. With this knowledge, they will be better prepared for life in a cultural and religiously diverse society such as our own and will have a desire to continue to develop a love of learning including learning about what people believe and how it shapes their traditions, lives and behaviour.