Religious Education
At Slip End Village School we value Religious Education. We embrace theological inquiry!
Religious education plays a vital role in the educational journey of children and young people, fostering a deep engagement with fundamental questions surrounding life's meaning, the existence of God, morality, and the essence of humanity.
In the realm of religious education, students are immersed in the exploration of diverse religious traditions and worldviews. Through this exploration, they are encouraged to delve into various perspectives, seeking understanding and grappling with different interpretations and responses to life's profound inquiries.
The teaching of religious education aims to furnish students with a structured comprehension of multiple religions and worldviews, empowering them to cultivate their own beliefs, values, and identities. Furthermore, it endeavours to cultivate within students a capacity for constructive dialogue, enabling them to contribute positively to our pluralistic society, rich with diverse religious and philosophical perspectives. Through religious education, children acquire and apply the critical skills necessary to analyse, interpret, and assess texts, authoritative sources, and other forms of evidence. Additionally, they learn to express their personal beliefs and experiences cogently and respectfully, while also acknowledging and respecting the perspectives of others, even when they differ.
At our schools we believe that Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It promotes respect and open mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection.
The principle aim of our RE curriculum is to provide learning opportunities that allow children to develop an understanding and appreciation for the expression of beliefs, cultural practices and influence of principle religions and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community; promoting the children’s ‘Cultural Capital’.
We support children to learn from and about the world’s faiths and cultures; making links between them and encouraging children to develop a broader understanding and acceptance of them.
At our schools, RE follows the Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire and Luton Agreed Syllabus, 2018–2023 from the SACRE curriculum
The RE syllabus uses a multi-dimensional model of religions and worldviews, and of RE
itself. Learners explore questions of identity: who am I? Where do I fit in? What influences shape me? They discover a range of accounts of the meanings humans find in life, developing their own sense of meaning, and they consider how human values are often common and humane, but also often distinctive in the ways they are expressed and practised.
The Chris Quigley curriculum which also underpins our RE curriculum provision, links to the agreed syllabus in the following ways:
Agreed syllabus Element 1: Making sense of beliefs
CQ (DoL) Beliefs and symbols
Agreed syllabus Element 2: Understanding the impact
CQ (DoL) Practices, values, symbols and reflections
Agreed syllabus Element 3: Making connections
CQ (DoL) Reflections and value
Chris Quigley’s curriculum allows for concepts to be revisited through each of the milestones across KS1 and KS2. This ensures the breadth of study and focus in all areas. We know this because of the research that has been carried out and we have crossreferenced this to ensure all areas of the national curriculum are covered. We are using a variety of resources to provide a holistic approach to our teaching.
Assessment is ongoing throughout the units of work which are taught. Low-stakes testing is used along with end of unit quizzes.
Retrieval practice is used in class as well as spaced repetitive practice. Depth of Learning is used to record assessment across the milestones.
As a result of our RE curriculum, our children develop an understanding and appreciation for different faiths. Children can talk about cultural practices, different faiths and inspirational people. Children will be able to be open-minded towards other faiths and develop their own sense of identity and belonging .
• Retrieval practice of previous lessons and what have we learnt questioning at the end of each session
• DIRT time
• End of unit quizzes
• Echo reading
• Checking understanding of texts and experiments through questioning and exploring
• VIPERS
• Use of Chris Quigley knowledge webs to underpin planning
Chris Quigley’s curriculum allows for concepts to be revisited through each of the milestones across KS1 and KS2. This ensures the breadth of study and focus in all areas. We know this because of the research that has been carried out and we have cross-referenced this to ensure all areas of the national curriculum are covered. We are using a variety of resources to provide a holistic approach to our teaching.
