Subject Philosophy: RE

The Queen’s Park RE curriculum aims to meet, and indeed stretch beyond, the expectations of our agreed syllabus for RE entitled ‘Living Difference III’ by providing opportunities to:

• Develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally;
• Promote respect and open-mindedness towards others with different beliefs;
• Encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection;
• Engage in an enquiry approach to develop an understanding and appreciation for different beliefs;

• Forge connections between the topic and a local, national or international context;
• Enjoy educational visits that will illustrate and extend concepts taught within class;
• Make meaningful links in learning (where appropriate) with the cross curricular ‘Big Question’.
• Build on pupils’ own experiences related to the concepts and religions explored.

We intend to teach RE with passion, enthusiasm and strong subject knowledge so that all students:

• Understand what a religious way of looking at life and existing in the world may offer
• Attend to their own experience and that of others
• Apply their experience to the new material they learn about
• Question what they have learnt and how it relates to them
• Contextualise the new material they have learnt
• Evaluate what they value and what this new material means to them
• Explore concepts common to all, shared by some, or distinctive to particular religions

During our half termly RE days, we teach through a Philosophy For Children enquiry based approach in which we explore concepts, e.g. belonging or specialness, and their link to us and to different religions.

Each RE day starts with an intriguing and exciting hook linked to the given concept, e.g. a game or an object. This will spark the children’s curiosity from the outset and will encourage them to take the lead in discovering where their learning will lead. Sometimes, these concepts may link with other curriculum areas however, this is not a forced link.

Throughout the day, we will be monitoring and assessing the progression of five main skills. These skills are outlined below:

• Communicating (discussing the concept)
• Applying (linking this concept to personal experiences)
• Enquiring (asking questions about the concept)
• Contextualising (contextualising the concept within the religion being explored)
• Evaluating (evaluating how important the concept is to the children and within the religion)

In order to explore, practise and improve these skills, RE day will consist of five or more activities linked to the given concept and relevant religion/s. These could include:

• the use of art to communicate initial thoughts about a concept
• the use of drama to apply a concept to personal experiences
• holding a debate in order to investigate a concept
• visiting a place of worship to contextualise the concept within the relevant religion
• writing a poem or letter in order to evaluate the importance of the concept within the child’s life and within the relevant religion
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Our RE teaching will have the following principles:

Explanation – our well-connected, clear curriculum means subject knowledge for teachers is secure and knowledge is clearly shared with pupils in engaging ways. Pupils are encouraged to remember what they learnt previously and consider how this links to what they are learning now. Older children may also be guided into think about how this will link to future learning.

Challenge – we have high expectations for all students. We scaffold and differentiate when needed but we also do not limit, encouraging all children to develop critical, higher level thinking skills at their own pace.

Practise and Application – after direct teaching, all children will be given the opportunity to apply new knowledge or practise a new skill. Sometimes, this may also happen in other subjects after the initial RE teaching e.g. children may be required to apply new knowledge to a written piece in English.

Questioning – we will use questioning and quizzing techniques to assess the understanding of and retention of key knowledge. We will also extend children through higher level questioning.

Feedback – we will provide both verbal and written feedback to our children (as per the marking policy) and ensure that this happens ‘live’ during lessons as much as possible. This will enable misconceptions to be addressed immediately.

Layered Provision and Free Choice Learning - we will provide a range of activities linked to an RE topic through a layered provision approach. Layered provision has been used successfully in EYFS however children can often lose resilience and independence as they move to formal classroom teaching in Key Stage One and beyond. We aim to continue this approach throughout the rest of the school to allow children to take charge of their own learning and interests. Children in Key Stage 1 and 2 should be given dedicated time for access to layered provision. It can also be used when a teacher wishes to work with smaller groups. Whilst it can be used occasionally when children have finished all of their directed tasks, this should not be the sole use of layered provision as some children may never get the chance to access it if this is the case.

Layered Provision Ideas for the RE

This is not an exhaustive list but activities could include:

Providing materials for further research and directing children towards what you want them to discover or leaving them to research based on their own interests in the topic (books, Ipads)

Cross curricular writing tasks to apply knowledge

Practise previously taught skills in different contexts

Higher Level Thinking tasks: create a… compare these… design a…

Partner and small group games