Religious Education

Intent:

At The Pathfinder C of E Primary School, we believe that it is vital for all our pupils to understand the role and purpose of our ‘Core Christian Values’ in their lives; values that can apply to all, irrelevant of personal faith or none. Through high-quality Religious Education (R.E), we develop pupils’ religious literacy: pupils develop their knowledge of the world faiths, and their understanding and awareness of the beliefs, values and traditions of other individuals, societies, communities and cultures. We encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their own beliefs, values and experiences. 

R.E has a high profile within our school curriculum and learning activities provide fully for the needs of all learners.  Our learners are inspired by the subject and develop a wide range of higher level skills such as enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection to deepen their understanding of the impact of religion on the world. We hold the belief that all children have the entitlement to the same experiences and opportunities and as such our Religious Education curriculum is enhanced further with trips to places of worship and visits from significant people in our local area. 

At The Pathfinder, we define the word 'curriculum' as being like a road map, based around all that is experienced in school. We use a carefully selected combination of resources to ensure that our children’s experience of Religious Education is thorough and well-rounded. These are separated into three core areas: 

• Thinking about religion and belief 
• Learning about religion: Christianity 
• Learning about religion: other faiths 

We have the highest expectations of all our children, regardless of their prior attainment, and regardless of where they started their education. Our intent is that all children should complete their primary Religious Education with the highest possible standards. 

Implementation:

Our Religious Education curriculum is comprised of 3 strands: units from Understanding Christianity, thematic units from Cornerstones and our own ‘Pathfinder Units’. These are in alignment with the Cambridgeshire agreed syllabus. The enquiry process is embedded into our planned learning, with each unit organised around a central key question. Summative assessment at the end of each unit informs our practice and in particular enables us to appropriately challenge each individual. 

All of the RE units taught within school are designed to allow links to be made across the curriculum and to other faiths and beliefs which have been studied. As a result, key concepts such as ‘God’ are explored in cross-faith exploration units within the rolling programme. This allows for children to identify the similarities and differences within faiths. Throughout a topic, we always return and revisit prior learning both through retrieval questions and lookbacks so that the knowledge within a unit is revisited multiple times and in a variety of ways.   

Within all RE lessons, children are encouraged to reflect upon their learning to help them empathise and understand the practices of people who hold different beliefs. Children are also given time to reflect upon their own spirituality and place in the world by sharing their own beliefs and ideas. 

Monitoring is central to leaders and class teachers’ work. This is achieved through dialogue with pupils, in-depth scrutiny of pupils’ work, monitoring of planning, lesson observations and dialogue with staff. Through monitoring and evaluation, we have a clear understanding of pupils’ progress and standards and can address the needs of each individual pupil. Dialogue with pupils and scrutiny of pupils’ work provides a great deal of information about the effectiveness of the curriculum as well as its delivery. 

We ensure that all resources used in RE are of a high quality and belong to NATRE (National Association of Teachers of Religious Education) to facilitate this. In addition to this, we have many links within our multicultural community which allows us to provide relevant and stimulating learning opportunities by engaging with visitors of other faiths and visiting sites of religious and cultural significance within our locality. 

Impact:

We know that we have been successful in delivering upon our curriculum intent in RE, when children are able to articulate their understanding of the beliefs and practices of others and can apply their knowledge of these by considering them in their day to day interactions with others. 

We monitor our RE curriculum both in terms of knowledge and skills based learning outcomes and through the development of the whole child. Classroom practitioners monitor the children’s Religious Education skills and knowledge through formative assessment against detailed learning objectives and assessment criteria. Children have the opportunity to present their learning in a variety of ways, including: concept mapping, extended writing and artistic responses. We encourage the children to revisit their learning and reflect upon their journey in each unit through regular completion of ‘what we know’, ‘what we want to know’ and ‘what we found out’ activities. 

Whilst spirituality cannot and should not be measured, practitioners use their understanding of spiritual development to alter plans to allow for progressively deeper spiritual development. This can be seen within the deep conversations classes have and the questions which children raise to be discussed and also with the creative responses using different mediums such as art, music, drama and reflection. 

Right to withdraw:

RE is provided for all pupils and is inclusive and broadminded. Parents and Carers do have the right to withdraw pupils from RE; if there is a wish to do this, please make an appointment with the Headteacher. The school does not support selective withdrawal from RE. 

Get Involved: 

We welcome religious visitors and respect their faith and contribution to pupils' learning. We recognise that our school community includes members of different faith groups, pupils from non-religious or secular families, and (within Christianity or other faiths) different denominational allegiances and would ask religious visitors to think through what they have to offer to all pupils. The sharing of insight, experience, belief and practice is appropriate. It is never appropriate to impose on members of the audience. If you feel you have insight, experience, belief or practice which you could share with our school community, please contact the school office.