Religious Education

Welcome to Religious Education at Richmond Hill Primary Academy

Led by Laura Vickers

Intent

Religious Education is a compulsory subject and forms part of the National Curriculum to which every pupil should have access. It can provide the foundation for many people’s lives and promote acceptance and understanding of other beliefs.

Religion has an important influence on our society. Religious Education is concerned with pupils learning ABOUT religion and FROM religion, to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. It involves educating children about cultures both familiar and unfamiliar to them in order that they grow up informed, able to make choices, and respecting people of all faiths and cultures.

While pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is nurtured across the curriculum, Religious Education offers children regular opportunities to appreciate and learn about diversity in their own community as well as in the wider world.

At RHPA we allow children to develop a sound knowledge of the following major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

At RHPA we believe that RE is the education of pupils about religion and not about promoting a belief in God, nor about changing pupils’ own faith and religious traditions. The teaching of religious education is statutory under current education legislation, though parents can withdraw their children for all or part of the lessons.

We provide religious education and daily acts of collective worship as set out in legislation for local-authority-maintained schools and funding agreements for academies and free schools.

Implementation

Our RE curriculum is supported by Love to Celebrate from the Cornerstones Curriculum though it remains in line with the Agreed Syllabus for RE produced by Doncaster’s SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on RE).

There are 6 Imaginative Learning Projects (ILP) per year for Year groups 1-6 (1 each on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism).

They are based around the 4 cornerstones of learning:

Engage – contains a short memorable experience to introduce the concept to the children

Develop – contains 4 sessions to deepen children’s understanding of the themes

Innovate – encourages children to work independently

Express – contains 2 sessions that allow children to consolidate their understanding and extend their knowledge

Each Love to Celebrate ILP is based around a religious festival. The celebration itself is only a small part of each ILP, as each set of projects covers all major aspects of each religion including worship, belief, leadership & belonging. 

Love to Celebrate encourages a variety of teaching methods including as role play/drama, stories and music. Visitors to school are encouraged to give children the opportunity to listen to and ask questions about another person’s experiences of living/celebrating through different faiths.

Each ILP has been mapped out across the year to ensure full coverage and also match some of the religious festivals to the time of year they actually take place. Teaching Love to Celebrate near to the date of the actual celebration will give context to the children’s learning and may provide opportunities to visit the place of worship.

Here is the Yearly Overview of Projects:

Early Years Foundation Stage

RE also contributes to children’s development of Characteristics of Effective Learning in particular with regard to:

• Making links and noticing patterns in their experience (Creating and Thinking Critically - Making links)
• Showing curiosity about objects, events and people (Playing and Exploring – Finding out and exploring)
• Using senses to explore the world around them (Playing and Exploring – Finding out and exploring)
• Representing their experiences in play (Playing and Exploring – Playing with what they know)
• Acting out experiences with other people (Playing and Exploring – Playing with what they know)

Parents/Carers have a right to withdraw their child from Religious Education

All parents and carers have the right to withdraw their child either, wholly or partly, from:

• Receiving religious education (RE) given in school in accordance with the school's curriculum
• Attendance at religious worship in school

If you would like further information about our RE curriculum please contact us. We would be happy to discuss this with you so that you can make an informed decision.