Religious Education

RE Curriculum

Intent:

At Badgerbrook Religious Education (RE) is seen as an important part our curriculum, designed to foster understanding, respect, and appreciation for diverse beliefs and cultures. It is a legal requirement for children to be taught RE.

Our intent is to provide a high-quality Religious Education curriculum which is coherent, progressive, pedagogically and philosophically sound. We aim to promote the cognitive, spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of all learners. Through a well-structured and thoughtful RE program, we strive to cultivate a deep understanding of diverse beliefs and cultures, fostering empathy, respect, and a sense of global citizenship in our pupils. Our curriculum is designed to engage students in critical thinking and reflective practices, helping them to develop a well-rounded perspective on the world’s religions and beliefs. By doing so, we prepare our pupils to thrive in a multicultural society, becoming open-minded and compassionate individuals.

Religious Education Knowledge-led Curriculum Aims:

The principal aim of Religious Education (RE) at Badgerbrook Primary School is to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions that religion and worldviews address. This approach helps our pupils develop their understanding and the skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as to formulate their own responses.

The curriculum for RE aims to ensure all pupils:

1. Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so that they can:

• Describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity within and between communities and individuals.
• Identify, investigate and respond to questions posed, and responses offered by sources of wisdom found in religions and worldviews.
• Appreciate and appraise the nature, significance, and impact of different ways of life and modes of expressing meaning.

2. Express Ideas and Insights About the Nature, Significance and Impact of Religions and Worldviews:

• explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities
• express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues
• appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion.

3. Gain and Deploy the Skills Needed to Engage Seriously with Religions and Worldviews:

• Investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, and respond creatively
• Enquire into what enables different individuals and communities to live together respectfully for the well-being of all
• articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly to explain their important in their own and other people’s lives

Throughout pupils’ time at Badgerbrook Primary School, teachers should ensure that their teaching supports pupils in achieving the broader goals of a knowledge-led RE curriculum.

Implementation

How Religious Education is planned and taught:

Our RE curriculum is carefully planned and taught to ensure a comprehensive and enriching learning experience for all pupils. Teachers use progression maps and the Leicestershire Agreed Religious Literacy for All Syllabus to ensure their teaching helps learners retain and remember more. This approach supports building on their knowledge over the long term, integrating new content into larger concepts. This method ensures that the content taught is effectively absorbed and connected to broader ideas, enhancing pupils’ understanding and retention.

In our Religious Education curriculum, retrieval practice is fundamental because it strengthens memory and makes it easier to recall information later. Opportunities for retrieval practice occur in two main ways:

1. Daily Review: To activate prior learning, most lessons begin with a daily review.
2. Spaced Retrieval Practice: Key knowledge is revisited on three separate occasions, spaced out from the initial teaching. This approach helps secure long-term knowledge acquisition and ensures that children retain what they have learned.

EYFS:

The Early Years Foundation Stage framework differs significantly from the national curriculum as it is structured across seven areas of learning rather than traditional subject areas. The skills taught in EYFS contribute to the RE curriculum, however, they are not always delivered as subject-specific knowledge and skills. The most relevant early years outcomes for RE are drawn from the ‘Understanding the World’ area of learning.

These knowledge and skills are primarily imparted through children’s play and exploration during continuous provision times throughout the day. Teachers intentionally plan enhanced activities that allow children to learn through their own discoveries. Some aspects of ‘Understanding the World’ are also integrated into RE lessons, where children explore topics such as people and communities, as well as significant events like religious festivals. This approach ensures that early years’ pupils develop a broad understanding of the world around them, laying a solid foundation for their future learning in Religious Education and beyond.

KS1/ KS2:

In Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Stage 2 (KS2), our RE curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of the agreed syllabus. This includes learning about Christianity throughout each key stage, as well as studying the principal religions represented in the UK, as directed by law. These religions include Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Judaism.

Furthermore, our classrooms reflect the diversity of beliefs found in our community. We recognize that children from families with non-religious worldviews, such as Humanism, are also represented among our pupils. These worldviews are integrated into our curriculum and are studied alongside the major religions.

Pupils in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 participate in carefully planned blocks of RE lessons. This ensures that all pupils have the opportunity to develop their understanding of different faiths and worldviews, promoting respect, tolerance, and a broad appreciation of cultural diversity.

Impact

Formative Assessment:

The impact of RE teaching at Badgerbrook Primary School is supported by formative assessment that ensures continuous monitoring and enhancement of pupil progress. Throughout lessons, formative assessment strategies such as questioning, retrieval practice, quizzing, independent learning tasks, and the assessment of work provide ongoing insights into pupils’ understanding and development. These assessments enable teachers to identify areas where further support or re-teaching is needed to address gaps in learning and ensure that pupils have mastered the curriculum content effectively.

For Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), progress is documented via Dojo, while in Key Stage 1 and 2, it is recorded in their books.

Summative Assessment: 

Summative assessment is completed at the end of each unit by using the unit assessment proformas for Key Stages 1 and 2.  These are aligned with the Leicestershire Agreed RE Syllabus. These assessments are administered to the entire class to evaluate individual pupil progress across different levels: working towards, expected, and working at greater depth within the syllabus expectations.

Tracking Pupil Progress:

Individual progress in Religious Education is communicated to parents through two termly Parents’ Evenings and an end-of-year report. These formal communication channels provide parents with insights into their child’s development in RE.

RE Policy 2024