R.E.

Intent

At Park Mead Primary School, R.E. has a significant role for the development of our pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Therefore, using our school values of ‘kindness, curiosity and determination’, we promote respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs. We encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. Our principle aim of teaching R.E. is to engage pupils in an enquiry approach where they can develop an understanding and appreciation for the beliefs, cultural practices and influence of principle religions, faiths and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community. 

The key aims for religious education are reflected in two distinct but complimentary areas:

• Knowledge and understanding
• Expressing ideas, beliefs and insights.

These areas encompass the attainment targets set out in the National Curriculum.

Implementation 

The children at Park Mead Primary School develop processes to demonstrate their capabilities; moving forward from knowledge acquisition to more sophisticated, higher-level thinking. These skills will developed in the following ways:

• Reflecting on feelings, relationships, experience, ultimate questions, beliefs and practices.
• Empathy such as seeing the world through the eyes of others, and seeing issues from their point of view, and suggest what might happen as a result of their own and others’ attitudes and actions.
• Investigation through questioning, exposure to a variety of sources to understand beliefs.
• Interpretation of artefacts and symbolism, religious language and meanings from religious texts.
• Evaluation of debated issues of religious significance with reference to evidence and argument.
• Analysis of differences between a variety of religions and beliefs, and distinguishing between opinion and fact and recognise that some questions about life are difficult to answer.
• Synthesis by connecting different aspects of life into a meaningful whole for a variety of religions and beliefs.
• Application of knowledge to make links between religion / belief and individual, community, national and international life.
• Expression to respond sensitively and imaginatively to questions about their own and others' ideas, experiences and feelings.

The development of these skills is enhanced in a variety of experiences and enrichment opportunities across the school such as handling artefacts, imaginative play, meeting visitors from local religious communities, visiting religious places of worship, taking part in whole school events. Park Mead Primary School follows the Surrey SACRE Agreed Syllabus from EYFS through to Year 6, pupils are taught the knowledge, skills and understanding through deeper enquiry. They are encouraged to investigate, consider and express their findings for the different faiths and religions they are taught. Pupils are therefore more informed to be able to consider the impact of beliefs and practices in greater detail and respond to more philosophical questions. 

Impact 

At Park Mead Primary School children have extended knowledge and understanding of different religions, faiths and beliefs. They have developed a religious vocabulary and are able to interpret religious symbolism in a variety of forms. Children leave Park Mead Primary School curiosity to explore ultimate questions of beliefs and values in relation to a range of contemporary issues in an ever-changing society. The impact of the Park Mead Primary School R.E. curriculum comes directly from the pupils. By gathering the pupils’ voice on the subject and also using summative assessment. Within discussions, children are able to reflect on questions of meaning, offering their own thoughtful and informed insights into religion and secular world-views in a respectful way. They are able to recognise the impact of their own and others’ attitudes and actions towards others with differing views of religion and faith.