Religious Education

at Sawley Junior School

Intent- What do we want SJS children to learn? 

Our Religious Education (RE) curriculum is designed to engage and enthuse learners. We believe RE has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and therefore our curriculum promotes respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. We aim for our RE curriculum to contribute dynamically to pupils’ education, while 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. We enable pupils to develop religious literacy and conceptual understanding of what it means to be a person of faith or no faith as we encourage pupils to articulate their own ideas and experience of religion, belief and spirituality.

RE nurtures SMSC development and pupils’ understanding of diversity.  We want our children to enjoy RE and develop resilient responses to misunderstandings, stereotyping and division. We aim to provide a holistic approach to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC), British Values, and Community Cohesion focuses on preparing pupils for life in the 21st century. We aim to progressively build on their knowledge and understanding of a variety of world religions, religious communities and religious traditions, festivals, places of worship and special books. Our RE curriculum provides rich opportunities for pupils to learn about things that matter in the lives of many people in the local area and the wider world.  

Implementation- How do we achieve our intent? 

Our curriculum follows the Derbyshire and Derby City Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2020-2025.  It is planned and sequenced to develop deep, lasting learning and builds upon prior knowledge to support and deepen understanding of concepts whilst exploring personal knowledge and understanding using Plan Bee resources. Where relevant, work is recorded in subject books and is evidenced using a variety of outcomes.

Each year group study a range of religions including: Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam. Alongside this, each year group are allocated units devised to support personal knowledge and understanding and deploy knowledge gained throughout the curriculum.

R.E. is taught in a weekly lesson or alternatively blocked within a half term to allow suitable links to be made to specific religious festivals taking place. Children gain a deeper understanding of the religion studied through the use of high-quality resources/artefacts and stories. Assemblies take place across the whole school and in classes; these are delivered by senior leaders, class teachers and our external providers.  

Attitudes which are fundamental to RE are: believing, expressing and living.

Believing, content and concepts
(Religious beliefs, teachings, sources; questions
about meaning, purpose and truth)

Expressing,
(Religious and spiritual forms of expression; questions about
identity and diversity)

Living, personal knowledge
(Religious practices and ways of living;
questions about values and commitments)

These work alongside the SMSC links and British Values implemented within school as a whole. Discussion opportunities are incorporated throughout sessions to support personal knowledge and understanding and