Our Vision for Religious Education

DNEAT Vision

Our aspiration is that all our academies are beacons of excellence for RE provision. Each academy will receive training and development for the Religious Education Quality Mark (REQM) to either its bronze, silver or gold standard (depending upon from where an academy starts and its current provision). The REQM offers general school improvement delivered through specific aspects of Religious Education.

Peterhouse Vision

It is our belief that a well planned and balanced diet of Religious Education can enable the children of Peterhouse to lessen the impact of the social and cultural barriers that they face in their lives by opening their eyes and hearts to the wide variety of views that they will encounter in the world. It will give them the chance to have an informed view of the world around them and enable them to become active participants and peaceful inhabitants of their local communities and beyond. Religious Education also plays a vital role in achieving the Academy vision of meeting the academic and spiritual needs of all.

Our Aims for Religious Education

The aims of Religious Education are to enable pupils to:

• Know about and understand Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide and as the religion that has most shaped British Culture and heritage.
• Give a theologically informed and thoughtful account of Christianity as a living and diverse faith.
• Know about and understand other major world religions and world views, their impact on society, culture and the wider world, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights.
• Show a well-informed, balanced and respectful attitude to religions and world views
• Engage in meaningful and well-informed dialogue with those of other faiths and none
• Reflect critically and responsibly on their own spiritual, philosophical and ethical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.

How do we deliver Religious Education?

The curriculum for RE is designed to ensure religious literacy lies at the heart. A multi-disciplinary approach to curriculum design provides a balance between theology, philosophy and the human/social sciences.

Theology:

This examines where beliefs come from, how they have changed over time, how they are applied differently in different contexts and how they relate to each other.

Philosophy:

This is about finding out how and whether things make sense. It deals with questions of morality and ethics. It takes seriously questions about reality, knowledge and existence.

Human/Social sciences:

This explores the diverse ways in which people practice their beliefs, both now and in the past. It engages with the impact of beliefs on individuals, communities and societies.

These three disciplines provide lenses through which each enquiry question is approached.

In accordance with the structure of the locally agreed syllabus we have agreed that:

• At KS 1 pupils study primarily Christianity and Judaism, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldviews.

• At KS 2 pupils study primarily Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, with reference made to other principal religions, beliefs and worldview.

In accordance with the Statement of Entitlement (2019), at least 50% of RE curriculum time is allocated to the teaching of Christianity. This entitlement is met both through the weekly or blocked teaching of RE, and through additional RE days which focus on an aspect of the Christian Faith.

Our Intended Coverage

The content of our Religious Education curriculum has been devised using the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus (2019). We have ensured that it covers a wide range of religions and world beliefs and enables children to have an informed view of the world.

Each year group has five enquiry questions to tackle over the course of the year. The enquiries progress through the year as well as across the year groups, meaning that the children will be asked to think more deeply and call on more prior knowledge for every enquiry that they tackle.

Assessment in Religious Education

Pupils are assessed in terms of how they are making progress in relation to the theological, philosophical and human/social sciences disciplines within RE. In broad terms the following principles have been applied to each aspect in terms of what it means to become more religiously literate:

• Extending knowledge and understanding from the concrete and familiar to the abstract and complex
• Moving from simple ideas and beliefs/concepts to making connections between them and placing these within a bigger picture or meta-narrative
• Demonstrating increasing layers of interpretation of religion, religions, beliefs and worldviews through engagement with a broadening and increasingly complex range of information
• Showing an increasing ability to critically question and form coherent, logical arguments, including increasing recognition of divergences of opinion about and the controversial nature of religion and belief
• Expressing a broadening understanding of diversity in terms of the nature of religion, religions and worldviews

Pupils are assessed using age-related expectations which are common across all DNEAT academies. This is done in a variety of ways e.g. through written activities, role play, art work, discussion. Progress is tracked using Pupil Asset.

Assessment is regarded as an integral part of teaching and learning and is a continuous process.  It is the responsibility of the class teacher to assess all pupils in their class. We assess the children in order to ensure that they make good progress in this subject and to plan future work.

In addition, pupils are encouraged to use self-assessment to evaluate their own knowledge and understanding.  A comment about their progress is made in the annual report to parents.

Examples for each disciplinary field

SAMPLE ONLY - For a full copy of the age related expectations, please speak to the RE Subject Leader, or contact the Diocese of Norwich

Discussion and Debate in Religious Education

We believe that all our children should be given the opportunity to discuss and debate a wide range of topics within and across our curriculum, enabling them to form their own opinions and viewpoints. We believe their worldview should be informed not simply by what their teachers have taught them but through their own exploration of the questions our world asks of them and meaningful dialogue with their peers. We allow for this by actively planning opportunities for discussion and debate into our lessons and wider provision and opening up space for all of our children to take the lead, express their thoughts, shape their arguments and be heard.

In RE, debate and discussion centres around the Big Questions for each unit of work. Teachers will actively plan in time for debate of the big question at an age appropriate level.