Religious Education

Intent

R.E. teaching at Kippax Ash Tree Primary School aims to give children a robust understanding of the identity and diversity of the local community to enable them to grow up to live and work alongside people of all beliefs and cultures. Through our RE curriculum, we provide opportunities to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of world religions and reflect on the challenging questions that it provokes. We aim to equip our young people with these essential skills for adult life and lifelong learning. They will grow up to live and work as active, purposeful global citizens alongside people of all beliefs and cultures and be challenged to reflect on difficult questions such as the meaning and purpose of life.

Our R.E. teaching aims to help pupils develop as resilient individuals, as tolerant young people with respect and understanding of the views of others, including the beliefs and practices of religions and other world views. With a focus on providing a curriculum with both depth and breadth, we ensure that our children gain the subject specific knowledge to allow them to consolidate and increase their knowledge and understanding of this subject as they progress through school.

Implementation

At Kippax Ash Tree Primary School, teachers plan using the Leeds Agreed Syllabus and REACH. This ensures that there is progression throughout the school. Through our knowledge rich curriculum, children learn about the beliefs and practices of the six major world religions and have opportunities to discuss key questions relating to diversity, morality and the meaning and purpose of life. Teaching includes special themed days, immersive experiences and projects with cross curricular links made where appropriate. Through following REACH and the Leeds Agreed Syllabus, children at Kippax Ash Tree Primary School study faiths and traditions not included in the six world religions (as defined in the guidance) and allows them to revisit and build upon their knowledge and understanding of different beliefs and practices. Our teaching and learning is focused around the investigation of key questions; an ‘enquiry model’ with contemporary, relevant, challenging and engaging questions to explore. Children explore personal questions of meaning, engage with profound issues and consider contemporary concerns that face our communities now and in the future. REACH and the Leeds Agreed Syllabus are both also taught across the Brigshaw Learning Partnership, ensuring consistency and shared knowledge with pupils from other Primary Schools and continuity when our pupils go to High School. Children have the opportunities to visit local places of worship, meet faith leaders, role play, and gain first hand experiences, which enhance the R.E. curriculum. Kippax Ash Tree Primary School also contributes to local community events, strengthening our links with those from other faiths and cultures.

• In Early Years the children learn about different celebrations across a range of different religions. In Christianity they will learn about the characters in the Christmas story and the meaning of the gifts that were brought. The curriculum also focuses on the values of love, kindness, respect and resilience and the similarities and differences between families. They will also begin to understand different cultures and traditions.
• In Key Stage One pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through religion and belief as well as wider learning themes. They are introduced to other principle religions and can reflect on prior learning as they progress through the units.
• In Key Stage Two pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through deeper enquiry into known religions and in Year 6, encounter secular world views. Pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 consider the impact of beliefs and practices in greater detail and respond to more philosophical questions.

Impact

Through their study of R.E. our children gain a greater understanding of the identity and diversity of their local community. Our pupils develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to better understand themselves and others and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. Children are encouraged to discuss and respect differences between people, such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and differences of family situations. We measure the impact of our curriculum through discussions, role play, circle times, links made to other curriculum areas, questions asked by children, responses raised by questions asked of them, and the way that children demonstrate they are respectful communicators and how they conduct themselves in their daily lives.