Religious education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. Through our teaching and learning we aim to develop our pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other religions and other world views that offer answers to questions such as these.
Religious Education learning offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development. It enhances pupils’ awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, as well as of the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures.
Religious education encourages pupils to learn from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while exploring their own beliefs and questions of meaning and being able to communicate their thinking.
Religious education encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging. It enables them to flourish individually within their communities and as citizens in a pluralistic society and global community. Religious education has an important role in preparing pupils for adult life, employment and lifelong learning. It enables pupils to develop respect for and sensitivity to others, in particular those whose faiths and beliefs that are different from their own.
‘Understanding Christianity’ is the creative and substantial resource that we use to support the learning and teaching of Christianity across our school. The Emmanuel Project is used to explore other major world religion and world views. Both of these resources support pupils in developing their own thinking and their understanding of religion, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it.
Religious literacy is the knowledge of, and ability to understand, religion. The importance of being religiously literate is increasing as globalisation has created greater links and migration between societies of different faiths and cultures. We explore this by beginning each unit with a ‘BIG’ question and then guiding pupils through the enquiry cycle giving them carefully structured opportunities to find things out for themselves, make their own connections and draw their own conclusions.
We aim to see our pupils leave school with a coherent understanding of Christian belief and knowledge of the world's major religions. Teachers create meaningful experiences that engage all learners by using quality texts and artefacts that develop knowledge and inspire the children to further develop their enquiring minds. Where possible we visit places of worship and welcome visitors into our school.
We explore the significant theological concepts within Christianity as part of developing their wider religious, theological and cultural literacy encouraging pupils to recognise, appreciate and respect cultural diversity in our world.