Religious Education (R.E.)

In R.E. EYFS pupils learn about different religious and cultural communities in this country and are given the opportunity to have first-hand experiences of local places of worships and visitors from other faiths and cultures where possible. As well as this we take advantage of virtual tours of special places online and learn from stories to bring experiences to life. The pupils begin to be able to identify some similarities and differences between celebrations and festivals. Pupils know that some places are special to members of their community and in wider communities outside of their own. As part of their learning, pupils will be encouraged to use a wide range of vocabulary to describe what they learn about diversity.

As they move into Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 the school follows the Northamptonshire County Council Agreed Syllabus which promotes an experiential and enquiry approach, starting, in KS1, with family, neighbourhood and special times. Concentrating on the similarities of religions. As the pupils move through KS2 learning widens from the local to the national and international examples of religion. Exploring diversity, similarities and differences within and between religions, humanism and other world views. Where possible, we want to provide the pupils with first hand learning of other faiths through visits and visitors as well as virtual resources.

We want our R.E. curriculum to challenge pupils to be increasingly respectful and to celebrate diversity of different cultures, faiths and beliefs and also to understand that there are non-religious worldviews. We want the children to be taught substantive knowledge that provides enough content for them begin to draw comparisons and find differences between views. We also want the children to have the skills to find the ‘way to learn’ through the disciplinary knowledge of enquiry by promoting the skills laid out in the agreed syllabus.

British Values should be actively promoted through the R.E. curriculum in order for pupils to develop their personal knowledge. In order to help this, we explore key concepts or big ideas for the pupils to explore their own thinking and to make links across beliefs and views, these are: Compassion, Empathy, Understanding, Appreciation, Forgiveness. R.E. lessons offer a structured and safe space during curriculum time for reflection, discussion, dialogue and debate. Excellent teaching of RE will enable pupils to learn to think for themselves about British values, key concepts and to develop their own strong moral code.  

At KSPA we follow the Northamptonshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.