RE Intent Statement

To be religiously literate in Christianity, Hinduism and Islam and have a broad knowledge of other world faiths.

Aims of our RE curriculum

Through our RE curriculum we want all children to:

• Develop a life-long, positive, and respectful attitude towards living in a society of diverse religions and beliefs.
• Make their own informed decisions and to have the confidence to voice their views.
• Have a safe place where difficult, challenging or risky questions can be tackled.
• Develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of many people in the UK and worldwide.
• Know and understand about other major world religions and non-religious worldviews, their impact on society, culture and the wider world, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights. 
• Give pupils the knowledge and skills to flourish both within their own community and as members of a diverse and global society.
• Contribute to the development of pupils’ own spiritual/philosophical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.  

Implementation

• RE is taught as a discrete subject with the skills and knowledge being built on as the children move through the school.
• RE is well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression.
• Visits to places of worship and visitors from different faiths are encouraged throughout the year. They provide first hand experiences for the children and spark their interest in being able to relate their experiences with their learning.
• The RE curriculum has high expectations for all children and is adapted using effective teaching strategies to allow all children to access the learning.
• RE is taught through the concepts of Living, Believing and Thinking. Children will explore a world faith through its beliefs (Believing); they learn about how these beliefs are then put into practise (Living) and they also use questioning, discussion, debate and dialogue to find out how and whether things make sense (Thinking).

Planning & Assessment

• RE is taught once a week in every year group.
• Planning follows a two-year cycle in KS1, LKS2 and UKS2. In EYFS RE follows a one year programme.
• Understanding Christianity is used to plan all Christianity units and the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus (LAS) is followed very closely when planning all other units.
• In KS1 the RE lessons are one third Christianity, one third Islam and one third is an additional unit set out by the LAS, which must comprise of exploring Christianity alongside the exploration of other world faiths.
• In KS2 the RE lessons are one third Christianity, one third Islam and Hinduism and one third is an additional unit set out by the LAS, which must comprise of exploring Christianity alongside the exploration of other world faiths.
• In EYFS the RE lessons are made up of Understanding Christianity units and LAS units which explore Christianity alongside other world faiths.
• The recall and retrieval of prior knowledge is built into the planning to embed their understanding of Christianity and other world faiths.
• Children’s knowledge will be assessed at the end of each unit and then again at frequent points throughout the year to ensure that they have remembered the key learning.

Impact

Children’s experience of RE at Long Bennington will:

• Allow children to demonstrate a positive and respectful attitude towards people of any religion or world view and show an understanding of cultural beliefs different to their own.
• Enable children to have a rich and accurate vocabulary when talking about the beliefs and practices linked to Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, which allows them to challenge stereotypes and discrimination.
• Empower children to ask 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. 

Imam Osman came to talk to us about Islam and we learnt many new things about this faith. 

We use a painting called The Big Frieze by Emma Yarlett in our lessons about Christianity. The large painting shows the big story of Christianity as portrayed in the Bible. We made our own version of the painting and it is displayed in our school hall.