Religious Education Policy - Durdan's Park Primary School

Respecting Rights

The policy is written with consideration to our school commitment to the Rights of the Child and our achievement of being a Rights Respecting School. It complies with Article 28 of the UNCRC ‘Every child has the right to an education’ as well as Article 29 ‘Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.’ Although direct reference to this is not continuously made, the policy has been written with full awareness of our responsibility and commitment to children’s rights.

LMPS Themes

At Lady Margaret Primary School, each unit of work is linked to the four key themes across the school: Legacy, morality, power, and sustainability. By linking each unit of RE to the four key themes, the children are posed questions about how they can make a change individually, as a class or as a school. In effect, children are able to use the themes to reflect on and recall previously taught units in earlier years. If a theme applies to the lesson, a slide should be dedicated to this in the introduction.

Inspiring LEGACY – our pupils will leave with wonder and passion for ideas, creativity, science and nature having personally connected with culture, ideas, inventions and special places through the curriculum
Active MORALITY – our pupils will leave with compassion and understanding and a desire to do the right thing has made a difference by helping others in the community throughout their time at LMPS
Responsible POWER– our pupils will leave with the power to manage their thinking and well-being and work well with others. They will gain the powers of analysis and problem solving each subject offers having solved a number of important and challenging problems and made change happen, working with others.
A commitment to SUSTAINABILITY – pupils will leave with a sense of common humanity and connection to nature has been ‘good stewards’ for the planet and connected with others in different parts of the world.

Purpose of Study

Religious Education (RE) contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in primary school by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God and issues of right and wrong. As well as this, RE provides the foundations for promoting acceptance and understanding of other beliefs. Through the teaching of RE, we aim to promote the spiritual, moral and cultural development of all pupils. “Religious Education is an essential element of the curriculum and contributes to the personal and intellectual development of children and young people” (Ealing Agreed Syllabus).

Aims

The National Curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils can:

Develop an understanding of concepts and mastery of skills to make sense of religion and belief.
Develop positive attitudes and values and to reflect and relate their learning in RE to their own experience.
Learn and understand that there are those who do not hold religious beliefs and have their own philosophical perspectives, and subject matter should facilitate integration and promotion of shared values.
Provide an appropriate balance between and within Christianity, other principal religions, and, where appropriate other religious traditions and worldviews, across the key stages as a whole, making appropriate links with other parts of the curriculum and its cross-curricular dimensions.

Access for All

Pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have a right to receive effective educational provision that enables them to fulfil their potential and every effort should be made to demonstrate the value of Religious Education with this group of children.

There is a statutory requirement that pupils with SEND are taught the subject as far as is practicable. This will involve teachers in setting suitable learning challenges that are appropriate for the circumstances of every child, responding sensitively to the diverse needs of each child, and devising strategies that overcome the potential barriers to learning and assessment for pupils in this category.

A number of approaches to teaching and learning may be especially suitable for pupils with SEND. These will include, but not necessarily be restricted to, the following strategies:

Focusing on personal memories/experiences
Sensory activities to enable children to gain first hand experiences of traditions
Listening to and discussing religious stories and highlighting traditions
Creative activities: play, art, drama, music and singing

Planning and progression

Religious Education aims to make an important and lasting contribution to the education of children and young people in a way that will equip them to play a full role in our multi-faith society. The subject seeks to promote learning and understanding about a range of faith and belief perspectives and to express the convictions that both they and others hold. In this way, the spiritual, moral, social, emotional, cultural and intellectual development of pupils will be developed. Good Religious Education will therefore integrate learning, understanding, insights, skills and communication. These qualities will enable children and young people to engage with a wide variety of religious perspectives as well as to appreciate the position of those people who have either an indeterminate faith or who are non-religious. For this reason, Religious Education should be taught in a way that is accessible and interesting to all pupils regardless of their personal faith and beliefs so that they have the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of different positions. This will be achieved when no particular religious position or non-religious worldview is either promoted or undermined within the teaching of the subject.

Effective learning and teaching in Religious Education will promote progression amongst pupils from simple to more complex ideas and concepts throughout their study of the subject.

This may involve the transition from the beliefs, principles concepts, values, views and attitudes that are held by the children themselves (EYFS), through those that are common to all human experience (Key Stage 1), through those that are shared by many religions and worldviews (Key Stage 2). Planning the transition within the Religious Education curriculum from broader to narrower principles will enable pupils to engage with religions and worldviews in a progressively richer and deeper way. They will move from the examination of issues and themes that, in various ways, are held in common by many different people and religious or non-religious traditions to those that are associated with specific religious systems.

The Role of the Religious Education Leader of Learning

The RE leader, leads the maintenance and development of the subject. They are responsible for assuring quality and standards in the subject by:

Taking the lead in the development, evaluation, and amendment of schemes of work as and when necessary.
Prioritises improvements for the teaching and learning of RE across the school and contributes to the school improvement plan, in consultation with the Headteacher and Governing Body.
Ensures that the school’s senior leaders and governors are kept informed about the quality of teaching and learning in RE.
The subject leader will monitor children’s progress and will monitor and evaluate RE provision in the school by conducting regular work scrutiny, learning walks and deep dives. They will use this data to inform the subject development plan, which will detail how standards in the subject are to be maintained and developed further.
Leads by example by setting high standards in their own teaching and raises the profile of RE at Lady Margaret Primary School through best practice.
Model lessons, as appropriate, to new staff, ECTs and peers to support continued professional development.
Monitors progression and continuity of RE throughout the school through lesson observations and regular monitoring of outcomes of work in floor books.
Ensures that all staff have access to year group plans and the relevant resources which accompany them.
Provides ‘expertise’ to assist staff in the delivery of the curriculum: ensures teachers understand the requirements of the National Curriculum and supports them to plan lessons.
The subject leader will ensure that all staff have access to professional development including observations of outstanding practice in the subject.
Regularly prepares, organises, and leads insets and CPD activities to support staff in developing areas of RE where they feel less confident, facilitating joint professional development, and provides coaching and feedback for teachers to improve pupil learning.
Evaluates, on a regular basis, the policy and scheme of work to ensure they form the basis of practice of RE within the school.
The subject leader will, on a regular basis, organise, audit, and purchase whole school and class-based RE resources.
Reads widely around pedagogy relating to the learning and teaching of RE takes responsibility for managing own professional development by participating in external training, independent private study, engaging in educational research and scholarly reading.
Develops opportunities for parents/carers to become more involved in RE; keeps mparents informed about RE.
They will ensure the high quality of RE displays around the school, present certificates of achievement during end of term assemblies and involve the school in ‘celebrations’ of RE, including participation in events such as showcase events.
The subject leader will extend relationships and make contacts beyond the school.

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Last reviewed on:
July 2022