Mayfield Primary SchoolReligious Education
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION LEADER
Mrs Hinchliffe
'ALWAYS START WITH WHY'
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION INTENT FOR OUR PROGRAMME OF STUDY: KNOWLEDGE, PROGRESSION, COVERAGE
(PRIOR, NOW, NEXT)
Our core school intent runs through every aspect of our teaching and learning. It is our philosophy and approach in every subject area. It is how we teach and learn. Every leader commits to this. But every subject must have its own Programme of Study - its own lines of progression for the knowledge and skills we plan to teach and therefore its own rationale/intent for what we teach and learn. This is the rationale for this ‘prior, now and next’ in Religious Education.
Our intention for our Religious Education curriculum, was to design a Programme of Study which reflects the many diverse religious beliefs in our wider area and region.
EARLY YEARS
This begins with the question ‘Why am I special?’ Then moves onto exploring Diwali, the Christmas Story (Gifts). Easter and New Life.
YEARS 1-2: CHRISTIANITY AND TWO WORLD FAITHS SPREAD EQUALLY
The children build their knowledge of Christianity and ONE other main world religion each academic year. Ensuring therefore that the coverage is evenly distributed and that the children have more than one opportunity to visit specific areas and therefore consolidate vital knowledge before progressing into KS2. We believe 'revisit, return and build' carefully generates lasting knowledge that we can take into year 3. By doing this we aim to ensure that knowledge about Christianity and different faiths of the world builds at the same pace. We have specifically designed learning opportunities in KS1 to reflect on two key questions: ‘What do people say about God?’ and ‘How do we respond to the things that really matter?’. We also consider the three major religions in our locality: Christianity; Islam and Judaism. We determined to separate these out in order to show the clear commonalities between the major Abrahamic faiths.
YEARS 3-6: CHRISTIANITY AND FOUR WORLD FAITHS SPREAD EQUALLY
We have carefully devised our over-arching Christianity focus alongside four FAITH STUDY themes in these years to complement the initial approach from KS1. We are confident the children have a robust knowledge and awareness by that stage and the comparisons drawn through these carefully placed studies from the major world faiths are ideal to progress the children's understanding even further. In keeping with our localised focus; Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam and Judaism, are our chosen areas of study.
As in KS1, we wanted to devote specific opportunities to reflect on KEY QUESTIONS. We therefore positioned opportunities to consider each of the fundamental questions of faith: ‘Who should we follow?’ ‘How should we live our lives?’ ‘Where can people find guidance on how to live their lives?’ ‘In what way is life like a journey?’.
Take a look at the Coverage Overview below. Download a copy at the base of the page and then take a look at the 'Implement & Impact' section of the website to see how we bring this to life with the help of our ‘how’ Classroom Craft philosophy.
At Mayfield Primary School, we use the Discovery Religious Education Programme. Our Programme of Study: Progression & Milestones document is the document put together by Discovery RE to run alongside their half-termly units and covers the two main Attainment Targets: 1- Learning About Religion; 2 - Learning From Religion. Progress and attainment relating to these targets is measured at five levels. We have placed a downloadable example below. There is no single document for every unit and every year - this would simply be too large - and therefore the assessment aspects are utilised alongside the matching unit being taught.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IMPLEMENTATION & MONITORING: SO MY CURRENT WORK IS.....
I have been working with other senior leaders and class teachers on three main goals that we wish to see:.
To ensure that the key aspects of our well-resourced R.E. curriculum demonstrate clear progression of knowledge and skills - being particularly careful to provide a stimulating range of activities for our children.
To deliver an engaging R.E. curriculum which facilitates exciting and purposeful opportunities for developing our children's speaking and listening skills.
To provide a relevant and rich R.E. curriculum which aims to ensure that each child leaves Mayfield knowing what followers of the main religions believe and how faith affects, and can enhance, people's everyday life.