Intent
At Swanton Morley Primary, Christian values are at the heart of everything we teach. We follow Jesus’ teaching to ‘Love your Neighbour as Yourself’ (Mark 12: 31 NIV). The vision of the school is underpinned by nine core values that we encourage in all children and adults in the school. These Values are taken from Galatians 5:22-23 NIV.
‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’
We aim for our Religious Education to be creative and thought-provoking. Our curriculum allows pupils to understand the beliefs and practices of the main religions and the impact on the lives of followers. Alongside this, pupils explore philosophical enquiries from a variety of viewpoints and are encouraged to question and debate. We aim to develop knowledgeable and inquisitive pupils who are able to have balanced, informed conversations about religious beliefs.
Our RE curriculum is based on the agreed Norfolk Syllabus, which aims to develop pupils’ religious literacy. ‘In the context of this syllabus, being 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.’ (Norfolk Agreed Syllabus, 2019)
Implementation
The RE curriculum is sequenced to allow pupils to revisit previously learning at various points throughout their journey through Primary, with pupils being exposed to and revisiting a variety of religions throughout the key stages. Across the year groups, each half-term’s learning is based around a core question which pupils endeavour to answer by the end of the unit, applying the knowledge and skills taught during the learning sequence. Key skills are based around three strands:
- Theology
- Philosophy
- Human and Social Sciences
We provide a RE curriculum that encourages pupils’ curiosity, wonder and inquisitiveness. Within lessons pupils are encouraged to reflect and hold discussions as a whole class and in groups in a safe environment where different beliefs and cultures are valued. Teacher’s make use of a variety of resources to support teaching and learning such as videos, online research, books, religious artefacts and religious extracts.
Pupils take part in daily collective worship and classes share a prayer each day. Each week during our celebration worship, each class teacher nominates one pupil to receive the ‘Love your Neighbour’ award to highlight those who have demonstrated the schools’ vision throughout the week. Pupils also have opportunities to take part in religious festivals such as Harvest, Christmas, Lent and Easter with support from the local church.
Impact
Pupils are assessed in a variety of ways, including pupil reflections, discussions and written evidence of learning. Teachers use this to formatively assess pupils within lessons and provide regular feedback to move the learning forward. Pupils are assessed at the end of each term using a point in time assessment which helps identify those that are on track and those that require additional support.