Intent

At East Rainton Primary, we believe Religious Education, along with other curriculum areas such as PSHE, has an important role to play in the development of our pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. In our school and through the RE curriculum, we promote respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging. We endeavour to promote a positive attitude toward people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own. Our principle aim of teaching in RE is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. At East Rainton Primary, children will aim to understand of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs so that they can examine and explain how and why people express their beliefs in diverse ways.

Implementation

RE is taught on a two-year rolling programme to ensure coverage in mixed age classes with coverage taken from the Sunderland Agreed Syllabus. Across the age range, pupils will develop understanding of the principal religions represented in the UK, in line with the Agreed Syllabus. These are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. Furthermore, as many of our children do not identify with a religious faith, non-religious worldviews will also be studied to ensure we are inclusive of all. Our RE curriculum is open, enquiring and exploratory, suitable for pupils who have a religious faith of their own, as well as for those who have no religious background.

Impact

At the end of each year, pupils will have developed their reflective skills, and have gained a new understanding of beliefs and religions in the world around them. The impact of our curriculum is measured by the progress children make with their learning and understanding. Each unit of work has specific outcomes that help pupils to achieve the end-of-phase outcomes.