Inspire Religious Education

Intent

At Larkrise Primary School we want to Inspire our children through the RE & Culture Curriculum. We use the Discovery RE Framework as a starting point to support us structuring our scheme of work - taking the key themes and mapping them into our Inspire Curriculum alongside our Big Questions. In the Early Years, Larkrise follows the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Key content for RE is predominantly covered within the area of learning ‘Understanding the World’ and can be learnt through adult-led whole class lessons, small group work and/or independent activities during Discovery Time.

Inspire Knowledge and Skills: We provide an RE curriculum that is designed to balance acquiring a broad and deep knowledge alongside opportunities to apply the key knowledge in various religious and cultural contexts. We will give children the opportunity to apply and develop what they have learnt across wider learning within the Inspire Curriculum.

Inspire Creativity & Adventure: RE at Larkrise intends to inspire curiosity in other cultures and broaden the children’s horizons. It is important to us that the children understand fundamental aspects of different religions in order for them to make a positive difference in society.

Inspire Kindness: We aim to develop knowledgeable and empathetic citizens through thought proving content and engaging delivery. We want to equip children to see diversity as a strength and not be afraid of differences. We want our children to leave Larkrise being able to respect those who may think or act differently than they do.

The Discovery RE framework covers the key religions, information and questions that we want our children to be knowledgeable about. This scheme covers Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. It was chosen as it has been created by subject experts and can effectively support teachers to enable long term retention of key knowledge of the subject. 

The RE Progression Grids have been designed to ensure that children are able to build upon the knowledge gained in the previous year. The units follow the pattern of:

• Enagage
• Investigate 
• Evaluate
• Reflect

This enables the best possible chance for key knowledge to be retained by children and for it to be applied in a variety of contexts. 

Implementation 

Our RE curriculum has been written to support all children, especially those with SEND and/or who are disadvantaged. Each lesson is sequenced so that it builds on the learning from the previous lesson, and where appropriate, activities are scaffolded so that all pupils can succeed and thrive. Scaffolded activities provide pupils with extra resources, such as visual prompts, to reach the same learning goals as the rest of the class. Exploratory tasks foster a deeper understanding of a concept, encouraging pupils to apply their learning in different contexts and make connections with other learning experiences.

Like all areas of our Inspire Curriculum we have used research evidence to develop our pedagogy of teaching and learning. For more information please see our Inclusive Quality First Teaching Key Principles.

Impact

By the time children in Year 6 leave us we want them to have the following experiences and understanding: 

Inspire Knowledge and Skills: Children will have the knowledge and skills to be able to:

• Develop an understanding of and respect for different beliefs and lifestyles.
• Identify people, concepts, beliefs and attitudes that have an influence on how they live their lives
• Relate religious beliefs and concepts to the practices, lifestyles and attitudes of the religions studied, identifying similarities and differences between and within religions.
• Consider what is of value to religious people through their exploration of religious beliefs, concepts and practices and how this makes a difference to people’s lives.

Inspire Creativity & Adventure: As part of the Inspire RE Curriculum children will be able to:

• Ask thoughtful and searching questions about their own and other people’s attitudes and ways of life

Inspire Kindness: By the end of Year 6 children will have:

• Seen their own way of life in relation to the influences identified and to recognize that other people will have an effect on how they live.
• Evaluated and weighed up their own ideas, beliefs and way of life in relation to those of other people. 

More information on the impact of the Curriculum can be seen in our celebration Magazine ‘Larkrise Look’.