How is religious education structured and organised? Why have these decisions been made?
At St. Paul’s we have a commitment to living a Christian way of life. Our Religious Education policy is at the heart of everything we are doing at St. Paul’s where we grow together and are deeply rooted in the values of ‘The Fruits of the Spirit’. As well as encompassing the principles of behaviour for learning and quality first teaching, we have high expectations of the whole school community to ensure the highest quality learning experiences for our pupils. This also includes the school’s expectations so that every member of every class has a positive learning journey.
As a voluntary aided Church of England school, it is expected that we follow the Manchester Diocesan advice as outlined in the syllabus for religious education. This is provided by Blackburn Diocese – called Questful RE. Each class timetables 5% - 10% of teaching time in total to the teaching of RE, excluding Collective Worship. This includes a 1 hour lesson; reflective time as well as all additional one-off lessons, such as, card-making, RE days, national and international days, experiencing celebrations and events etc. Lessons are taught by class teachers, this encourages the themes and discussions to infuse all other areas of the curriculum, embedding the knowledge and understanding of RE even further.
Each unit highlights the key questions, vocabulary and section of the Big Frieze (God’s story / time line) these are explored with the children. Medium term plans ensure that the four main elements of Questful RE are taught (To begin with, Explore the text, Discover the impact and Make the connection) taking the children on a journey of exploration in order to make their own decisions and enquiry, some of these units also include a non-Christian link covering other world faiths. Lessons are taught through a range of contexts such as drama, dance, craft, meditation, reflection, research, writing, poetry, community tasks etc. Discussions and examples of children’s work are recorded in a large presentation book (Floor Book) explaining the learning and learning outcomes. RE involves much discussion and reflection and RE lessons give emphasis to this. Floor books allow for these to be recorded more easily and effectively than in individual books, showing journeys of learning within and between lessons. Children’s input is often recorded in a range of ways, within shapes related to the lesson, within borders, mind maps or photographs for example. The children take pride over the way their work is presented and during each unit the children will write at longer length, demonstrating their writing skills as they do in their English lessons.
At the end of each unit, the class are assessed against the units ‘what I know’ learning outcomes. Assessments are used to inform future planning, recognise individuals who have missed lessons, working below or working above age related expectations.
In KS2, each child has a reflection book in their tray. This is used during reflections within RE lessons, significant points throughout the year, weekly reflection times or PSHE lessons. This is a personal book that demonstrates a child’s personal spiritual journey for them to look back on.
Although Questful RE has non-Christian faith lessons, St. Paul’s ensures that world faiths are covered in more depth, each year, each year group covers adifferent faith during Interfaith Week (Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam, Light, Prayer). By the time a child leaves St. Paul’s they will have explored the main world faiths. This supports our aim of encouraging children to be inclusive in thinking and their actions within our community.
Year 4 RE Floorbook
Year 5 RE Floorbook