Religious Education

Intent

Religious Education at St Mary’s CE School enables every child to thrive and to live life in all its fullness. RE promotes dignity and respect whilst encouraging all to live well together. As a Church school, RE has a high profile and helps embed our Christian values and our vision to 'Shine as Lights in the World' throughout our school and wider community. The rich and engaging nature of lessons through an enquiry approach enable all children including SEND and the more able to flourish in their RE learning.

The purpose of RE is to teach children about the religious and non-religious world-views that they will encounter in modern Britain and enable them to engage in meaningful and considered dialogue with those of all faiths and none. This is religious literacy. Every year group studies Christianity and at least one other world faith. Staff ensure there is a balance between Theology, Philosophy and Human Sciences.

We use the Discovery RE Scheme as it takes an enquiry approach to lessons making them exciting and engaging for both teachers and children alike. Discovery RE was chosen as the basis for are scheme of work as it has an enquiry-based and investigative approach based around Big Questions. This fits in well with both the Diocesan Scheme and the resources found in Understanding Christianity.

Faiths studied by each Year group:

Nursery - Festivals celebrated by the cohort

Reception - Christianity and festivals celebrated by the cohort

Year One - Christianity and Judasim

Year Two - Christianity, Judaism and an introduction to Hinduism and Isalm

Year Three - Christianity and Hinduism

Year Four - Christianity and Judaism

Year Five - Christianity and Hinduism

Year Six - Christianity and Islam

RE activity examples across the school

Visits

All Year Groups visit The Church on Fairford Leys to further develop their understanding of the Christian faith. Trips are also arranged to other churches, places of worship and visitors are invited in so the pupils can begin to appreciate how faith in a world religion influences followers daily.

Biblical Experience Week

Every year the whole school visits The Church on Fairford Leys to take part in a range of workshops. These help the children to gain agreater understanding of Biblical stories, the historical backgruond behind them and what they mean to Christians today. These weeks have included: Moses, Daniel, Easter, Parables and The Lord's Prayer.

Easter Experience

The children took part in four workshops around the church. These were tailored to each year group by including age appropriate religious literacy and activities from the Understanding Christianity Salvation units. The children acted out Jesus' triumphal entry to Jerusalem, discussed some of the traditions Christians take part in during Lent and Holy Week. They reflected in the Garden of Gethsemane and took part in the Last Supper while learning about its link to Passover. The experience finished with the stone being rolled away from the tomb and some fizzy forgiveness prayers.