RE and Worldviews Lead: Ros Baker

At Trent Young’s, we want our children to understand that Religious Education and World Views is the study of what guides people by looking at sacred texts, religious practises and making connections. This is the foundation for children beginning their journey towards becoming nurturing, global citizens. We want our children to know that spirituality lies at the heart of how we live and interact with those around us. Religious and World views is the study and interpretation of the frameworks that form the foundations of different belief systems and their follower's lives. It seeks to help pupils understand their own beliefs and values and foster empathy and compassion towards others. When investigating, their thinking is developed through disciplinary concepts that encourage them to think as a theologian. These concepts form a unique framework of enquiry and shape the questions that theologians investigate.

What are Religious and world views?

Religious and Worldviews are the interpretive frameworks that form the foundations of people’s lives. Religious and Worldview Education is a discipline dedicated to explaining the beliefs and practises of people throughout the world. It seeks to help children understand their own beliefs and values and foster empathy and compassion towards others. It contributes dynamically to children and young people's education by 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. When investigating, their thinking is developed through disciplinary concepts that encourage them to think as a theologian. These concepts form a unique framework of enquiry and shape the questions that theologians investigate. RE also promotes children's tolerance and mutual respect in a diverse society.

Our Curriculum Intent

At Trent Young’s CE School, we have designed our R.E. curriculum with the intent that our children will become resilient, accepting, mindful and inquisitive learners. The aim of Religious Education is to help children to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. We aim to understand the way that religious beliefs shape our lives and our behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance our spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Religious Education is taught throughout the school in such a way as to reflect the overall aims, values, and philosophy of the school. As a Church of England school, RE plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE and the teaching of British Values, in promoting the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of our children. Strong links are made with our school Vision and Ethos of ‘Being a Light for all to See’ Matthew 5:16 alongside the Christian values that underpin our school ethos.

Our Curriculum Implementation

We use Understanding Christianity and The Emmanuel Project to support the planning, teaching and delivery of religious and worldviews across the school.  RE is taught as a discreet subject each week with a 60% focus on Christianity throughout the school year.

Both planning resources follow a similar structure of engage, enquire, explore, evaluate and express which we feels best fits our curriculum intent and impact. By addressing key questions, both resources allow children to explore core text or theory, examine the impact for believers and consider possible implications. Each unit incorporates the three elements:

• Making sense of the text – Developing skills of reading and interpretation; understanding how people of faith interpret, handle and use biblical texts; making sense of the meanings of texts
• Understanding the impact – Examining ways in which people of faith respond to scared texts and teachings, and how they put their beliefs into action in diverse ways within their communities and in the world
• Responding and making connections – Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting the texts and concepts studied, and discerning possible connections between these and children’s own lives and ways of understanding the world.

Each Understanding Christianity unit begins with a ‘way in’ and then offers teaching and learning ideas for each element. The teacher chooses how to weave together the elements, from making sense of the text, through looking at the impact on the world of the Christian, and helping to make connections with the world of the pupil, in order to achieve the outcomes.

This model shows that the Understanding Christianity approach is not just getting children to learn what Christians think. Instead, it is about developing skills to help them ‘think theologically’ alongside the learning of knowledge about the Bible, Christian belief and practice. It also shows that these three elements do not represent rigid, distinct steps, but that pupils can ‘make connections’ whilst ‘making sense of the text’, for example.

Each unit from The Emmanuel Project follows a similar structure.

Within the clear teaching sequence, individual lessons are designed around an enquiry focus, which children are expected to be able to explain at the end of the lesson. Each lesson builds in small steps upon the previous with prior learning referenced within the teaching sequence through a variety of means such as low stakes cumulative quizzing, structured talk and retrieval practice. This ensures that children can secure their learning in small steps, with teaching informed by continuous assessment of and for learning and misconceptions addressed at point in time. At the end of learning sequences, children use their accumulated knowledge to answer their key over-arching enquiry question. Quizzes on essential knowledge are also sometimes used to support teacher understanding of their knowledge retention and to inform future planning. Teachers plan lessons using a mastery teaching approach, driven by our curriculum drivers, our school’s vision and school’s values.

Our Curriculum Impact

The children at Trent Young’s CE School enjoy learning about religions and worldviews and why people choose or choose not to follow a religion. Through their learning, the children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world. Through R.E. our children are developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life and worship, which they are then able to communicate to the wider community. Children will feel they are valued as individuals and that their beliefs are valued and celebrated, and feel safe to learn new things and share their beliefs with others in an accepting environment.

The evaluation of learning takes place in a number of ways:

• Assessment  takes place throughout each lesson, using formative strategies such as asking challenging, in-depth questions; feedback through marking and discussion; opportunities for children to respond  to this and improve their work;  and self-assessment and peer assessment.
• Children in Key Stage 2 produce their own knowledge organisers, demonstrating not only the facts they have learnt, but their ability to make links and apply the skills that have been taught.
• Teachers frequently check children’s learning, for example through knowledge and word quizzes.
• Key learning and understanding for each unit is identified, and forms the basis of summative assessment at the end of each unit of focus. These judgements are recorded on Insight.

Curriculum Drivers:

More in-depth documentation is available on request for our RE and WV curriculum.