Religious Education

Through delivering high-quality RE, will aim to build pupils’ religious literacy so that they will have the ability to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and worldviews. Pupils will be able to make sense of religion and worldviews around them and begin to understand the complex world in which they live. RE is primarily about enabling pupils to become free thinking, critical participants of public discourse, who can make academically informed judgements about important matters of religion and belief which shape the global landscape.

RE is about developing religious literacy, therefore this syllabus promotes an understanding of religion and worldviews which best fulfils this purpose. This is rooted in a multi-disciplinary understanding of the subject. This provides a balanced diet ensuring that pupils are seeing religion and worldviews through different lenses, and places RE within a strong, and well-established academic tradition.

RE in EYFS will prepare children for the multi-disciplinary approach.

Pupils begin to explore religion and non-religious worldviews in terms of important people, times, places and objects, as well as visiting places of worship. Pupils listen to, and talk about, stories which may raise puzzling and interesting questions. They are introduced to specialist words and use their senses in exploring religious and non-religious beliefs, practices and forms of expression.

In KS1 and 2, the syllabus builds on an enquiry-based approach. This enquiry-based approach is set within a climate of effective learning in RE where:

• an appropriate level of challenge is provided for all pupils
• all pupils know they can achieve and there is an expectation of success
• the learning is set in a real and authentic context, with a clear purpose, meaning and relevance
• a safe environment is created where all pupils are valued, so they can confidently agree to disagree and express themselves freely
• pupils have a sense of ownership over what is being learned and how they are learning it
• there is a clear learning journey and identifiable outcomes
• there is space and time for reflection
• assessment for learning is at the heart of teacher planning

This syllabus promotes the following enquiry process as best practice within lessons or across each unit of work:



Engage Stage 1: The new enquiry is introduced by exploring the conceptual focus and core question.

Enquire Stage 2: The enquiry is co-constructed with the pupils whilst staying within the parameters of the learning outcomes.

Explore Stage 3: Pupils enquire into the core question through the suggested core knowledge.

Evaluate Stage 4: Pupils respond to, analyse and evaluate their understanding of the core question.

Express Stage 5: Pupils express the knowledge and understanding they have gained to answer the key question, with an opportunity for the teacher to

assess if pupils have met the age-related expectations if appropriate.