St Nicholas Priory CE VA Primary School: Religious Education and Worldview Curriculum Overview

At St Nicholas CE VA Primary we believe in serving others and aspire to provide high-quality RE that will support pupils’ religious literacy. Religiously literate means that pupils 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.

Aims

• To know about and understand a range of religious and non-religious worldviews by learning to see these through theological, philosophical and human/social science lenses.
• To express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religious and non-religious worldviews through a multidisciplinary approach.
• To gain and deploy skills rooted in theology, philosophy and the human/social sciences engaging critically with religious and non-religious worldviews.

Assessment

Pupils’ progress is assessed in relation to the purpose and aims of the subject. Therefore, this primarily concerns how well pupils are able to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and worldviews. In other words, are pupils becoming more religiously literate? Attainment and progress are therefore linked to the multi-disciplinary approach to RE advocated throughout this syllabus.

After each enquiry big question is explored pupils will work on one or several pieces of learning that contributes to an overall outcome. Teachers use this learning to make summative judgements on Pupil Asset (termly) using the language of  working towards/ at/ or greater depth standards in RE linked to the identified Age-Related Expectations for that unit of work.

How we teach RE?

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

Knowledge Organisers

We plan our curriculum using the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus and ,for some units, the Diocese of Norwich developed Knowledge Organisers for RE as a framework to support our planning of Big Question Enquiry sequences in RE.  These resources provide high quality guidance, resources and starting points that can be developed into purposeful learning relevant to each class and child’s context in our school.

This syllabus continues to promote the following enquiry process as best practice: An enquiry-based approach for RE

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.

How we record in RE

In KS1 – Evidence Me is used to record individual logged work for each pupil.  In KS2 RE books are introduced in Yr3 and this book follows the pupil through the whole of KS2.

Moderation and Exemplification

Each year the school has the opportunity to undertake diocese moderation of samples of work in RE from EYFS, KS1 and KS2.  These will be collated once verified as exemplification materials to benchmark our high expectations and the standards expected in RE at St Nicholas Priory. Annual checks on RE learning, teaching and curriculum is completed with the RE Adviser each year, this includes pupil perception interviews and discussion with governors.