RE – curriculum information

Intent

At Victoria Dock Primary School we strive to deliver a high-quality RE curriculum which allows our pupils to recognise the significance of religious and non-religious beliefs and worldviews in their everyday lives. We explicitly teach pupils the skills and knowledge they need to develop a mutual respect and understanding of/for all cultures and religions; gain the skills and maturity to make their own decisions and create their own values; challenge stereotypical views, racism and discrimination and to appreciate difference positively.

Our curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils develop religious literacy through:

  • knowing about and understanding a range of religions and worldviews, and learning to see these through the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and the Social sciences;
  • expressing ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religion and worldviews through a multidisciplinary approach whilst engaging critically with them;

gaining and deploying skills taken from the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and Social sciences to enhance learning about religions and different worldviews.

Implementation

At Victoria Dock Primary School, our curriculum is based on the Hull and East Riding Syllabus for RE. This syllabus is led by key concepts and vocabulary providing pupils with opportunities to build a shared and consistent understanding. Units of learning are organised into a spiral curriculum to ensure themes are revisited regularly as pupils move through the school. This ensures each unit builds effectively on prior learning and ensures connections are made between different units to help children know more and remember more. This approach reflects the principles of curriculum coherence, with less content and an emphasis on establishing understanding of core concepts. There is an expectation that topics will be taught in a deeper way, using a multi-disciplinary approach, and paying attention to the big ideas which underpin learning. This approach provides children with the opportunity to develop ‘powerful knowledge’ about the religions and other worldviews they study, which helps to make them skilful and sophisticated interpreters of the world around them. Please see MTP (Scheme of Work) for RE.

Domains of knowledge

At Victoria Dock Primary School, the RE syllabus provides pupils with an understanding of the following domains of knowledge:

Substantive knowledge is the golden thread that runs throughout the curriculum and forms the content, building progressively to develop pupils’ understanding of key concepts, second-order concepts and vocabulary. Please see LTP for RE.

Disciplinary knowledge – or being aware of different ‘ways of knowing’ – builds progressively and considers substantive knowledge through different academic disciplines. In line with (developing) practice across the country, pupils at Victoria Dock Primary School will be introduced to some different ways to enquire about religion and worldviews throughout each key stage. To help pupils explore religions and worldviews through a balance of beliefs, ways of living and thoughtful, deep questions they will consider RE through an ‘about believing’ lens (theological), an ‘about living’ lens (social sciences) and a ‘thinking about’ lens (philosophical). This approach will enable pupils to consider their own worldview as well as those of the different religious and non-religious groups and individuals they learn about.

Personal knowledge explores the development of personal worldviews and considers how positionality might be influenced by values, identity, perspective, bias, assumptions. Cultural capital, in terms of people, places, texts and lived experiences is also utilised in this domain.

At Victoria Dock Primary School pupils’ learning is enhanced by engaging in varied experiences and opportunities, which include:

  • visiting places of worship and focusing on symbols and feelings;
  • listening and responding to visitors from local faith/secular communities;
  • using their senses and having times of quiet reflection;
  • using art and design, music, dance and drama to develop their talents and imagination (i.e., Spirited Arts/Poetry);
  • to develop their talents and imagination (i.e., Spirited Arts/Poetry);
  • sharing their own beliefs, ideas and values and talking about their feelings and experiences;

Impact

At Victoria Dock Primary School, the impact of learning is measured using Big Questions which help demonstrate what has been understood. This criterion is informed by the statutory End of Key Stage Expectations which describe the knowledge, skills and understanding expected of a pupil who has a secure understanding of what has been taught. Where learning is not secure, additional learning takes place to address this. (RE standards are monitored records attainment against year group objectives.) Please see Progression document for RE.

Further information

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