Intent

At St Leonard’s VA Lower School our Christian faith and values form the basis of everything we do. We are 'growing and learning together with God's love'.  

Our school community is inspired by the Parable of the Sower. We are encouraged to think about and understand that the smallest things have the greatest potential when they are provided with the best conditions for growth.

We aim to provide a school community built on the foundations of our 'Christian Values', where all children feel safe, secure, welcome, included, challenged and nurtured and where they can grow personally, academically, socially and spiritually.

We are committed to providing a high quality RE curriculum, which is engaging, inclusive and inspiring, where pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, and reflect on their own ideas and ways of living. Ultimately supporting our pupils to grow and flourish and to live life in all its fullness (John 10:10)

The aims of RE are to enable pupils to:

• Know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text;

• To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews studied;

• To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human experience and existence;

• To recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places; and

• To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.

As a VA school, RE is taught in accordance with our Trust Deed.

Implementation

We use Understanding Christianity resources to support our teaching of Christianity and Emmanuel Project Resources to support our teaching of world faiths.

The use of the resource Understanding Christianity particularly supports the development of the theological perspective.

A sequential curriculum map has been designed in order to allow pupils to become religiously literate through developing, year on year, their knowledge and skills.  Our Curriculum is a spiral curriculum aimed at developing mastery of knowledge.

In accordance with the Statement of Entitlement (2019), at least 60% of curriculum time is allocated to the teaching of Christianity. This entitlement is met both through the weekly or blocked teaching of Religious Education, and through additional ‘RE’ days.

• At Key Stage One, pupils study Christianity, Judaism and Islam, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldviews.

• At Key Stage Two pupils study Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldviews.

Children at St Leonard's Lower are taught by teachers who have a secure subject knowledge and are trained in teaching Religious Education, supported by the Diocese of St Albans Education team.

Religious Education uses an enquiry-based approach to learning. This is based on the best practice framework in Understanding Christianity, The Emmanuel Project Resources and the Locally Agreed Syllabus. This approach enables pupils to focus on an enquiry question which explores aspects of the theological, philosophical and human/social sciences. A range of teaching strategies are used to ensure learning is challenging and relevant including the use of art, music, thinking skills, artefacts and stories.

Where possible we want our pupils to have opportunities to encounter local faith communities through visits to local places of worship or visit from members of local faith communities.

This scheme of work provides children with a wide range of inspiring opportunities following a three step learning process of Engage, Enquire and Evaluate. Throughout their time at St Leonard's Lower our children will explore many religions and increase their awareness of Judaism, Islam and Sikhism. The children develop their understanding of religious education through lessons, visits to places of worships, guest speakers and practical work. The Emmanuel Project uses big questions as central to its approach. These questions are then explored in different ways and children are encouraged to ask their own questions throughout.

By addressing key questions, Understanding Christianity encourages pupils to explore core Bible texts, examine the impact for Christians and consider possible implications. Each unit incorporates the three elements:

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

Right of Withdrawal Under the 1944 and 1988 Acts

Parents have a right to withdraw their children from Religious Education or parts of Religious Education. On the extremely rare occasion that parents wish to do so, we would encourage them to discuss this with the Head Teacher first. 
 
Impact

Religious education is monitored through a variety of methods to ensure that the children are receiving a
consistent progression throughout the school. This is achieved through book looks, pupil voice and regular
feedback each lesson. Religious education is considered a core academic subject at St Leonard's Lower and the children’s knowledge is assessed regularly through the solo taxonomy approach provided by the Emmanuel Unit and the R.E. assessments linked to each unit.

Knowledge Organisers