Religious Education

Intent

At The Ridge, our intent for RE is to enable children to become inquisitive, resilient, respectful, and accepting individuals who are able to express and articulate their own ideas and insights about the diverse world that we live in. Our role is to ensure that children aspire to become the very best individuals they can be in order to contribute to our school, our community and the wider world in a positive way. Our Vision in RE is for children to question deeply, challenge respectfully and think creatively. This vision is displayed on our RE working walls in all classrooms for our children to use with a view to focus their learning.

Implementation

As RE is not on the National Curriculum – apart from a stipulation that schools must teach RE as part of a broad and balanced curriculum – we built our syllabus by following the Dudley Agreed Syllabus, NCFRE 2023 and for EYFS, Development Matters and Birth to 5 Matters. Alongside these documents, we use Discovery RE to deliver the curriculum.

Discovery RE is an enquiry based approach that is based around a key question. The key question for the enquiry is such that it demands an answer that weighs up ‘evidence’ (subject knowledge) and reaches a conclusion based on this. This necessitates children using their subject knowledge and applying it to the enquiry question, rather than this knowledge being an end in itself. The religions and themes studied are repeated, allowing pupils to build on their long-term memories within the year, as well as year on year. Pupils are taught appropriate and progressive vocabulary so that they are able to consider and express their personal views and beliefs, develop critical thinking skills on personal reflection into the child’s own thoughts and feelings and nurturing spiritual development.

Where appropriate, we enhance the curriculum by incorporating religious artefacts, welcoming visitors into school and also by arranging offsite educational visits, which excites and intrigues our children to find out more about world religions.

As part of our Collective Worship at The Ridge, we are happy to be able to welcome our Open The Book Team into school every other week. The team consists of members of St James and St Michael’s Churches who generously give their time to contribute to our Collective Worship. They do so by dramatizing Bible stories and sharing an age-appropriate explanation that encourages children to consider how to live according to Christian values that are at the core of our school life. The team help to support the spiritual development of children at The Ridge whilst also bringing lots of fun and excitement to a Thursday morning! There is no shortage of smiles or laughter when the team ‘open the book’ and begin to share a story with the children. We also have a Special People Assembly (fortnightly) at The Ridge where teachers share information about the life of a person who has made an impact on the world, for example, Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa.

In upper Key Stage 2, we invite visitors from Walk Through The Bible to teach biblical stories in a fun and engaging way:

Year 5 Old Testament: Spring 2

Lesson 1 – Beginnings

Lesson 2 – Moses

Lesson 3 – Promised Land

Lesson 4 – Kingdoms

Lesson 5 – Exile

Year 6 New Testament: Summer 2

Lesson 1 – Arrival

Lesson 2 – Ministry

Lesson 3 – Passion

Lesson 4 – Church

Lesson 5 – Expansion

All classrooms have an RE Working Wall which links to SMSC and British Values. The Six Main Religions are displayed and the focus religion is highlighted. The Big Enquiry Question is in the centre of the working wall, alongside the Key Vocabulary and a WAGOLL to help support the children’s learning.

Impact

Through their RE learning, the children will have a broad and balanced understanding and awareness of the world around them. Children will acknowledge the diversity, religions and beliefs of their local community, and know their own value in adding to this. Children will be confident in discussing philosophical questions and know how to be respectful as a listener. They will be sensitive to the views and beliefs of others, and know that religious education has an impact on the future evolution of society. They will know that they are in a community where their own thoughts, views and beliefs are valued and are safe to be shared. Our children will leave school with a strong sense of belonging, with the confidence and skills to make decisions, to self-evaluate, and to continue to ask important questions.

Children complete a My Learning Progress assessment at the end of each unit of work. Each statement is coloured coded and links to the three aspects of learning:

Personal resonance
Knowledge and understanding
Evaluation/critical thinking

Progression Through Religions

As a religion is taught, the unit of enquiry builds on the previous one. For example, in Year 4 children learn about the religion of Buddhism.

Autumn 1: Theme - Buddha's teachings. Key Enquiry Question: Is it possible for everyone to be happy?

Spring 1: Theme - The Noble Eightfold Path. Key Enquiry Question: Can the Buddha's teachings make the world a better place?

Summer 2: Theme The Noble Eightfold Path. Key Enquiry Question: What is the best way for a Buddhist to lead a good life?

The core belief of Buddhism is that everyone lives and leads a happy fulfilled life. In order for children to learn from this (AT2) they need to understand how to be happy, make others happy and also when you don't feel happy what you can do about it. Children then progress and introduce the Noble Eightfold Path which builds on previous knowledge.

In Discovery RE Christianity is taught in every year group with a spiral developmental approach - Christmas and Easter being given different treatment each year to deepen understanding.

Collective Worship

We have a Special People Assembly (fortnightly) at The Ridge where teachers share information about the life of a person who has made an impact on the world, E.g Desmond Tutu and Mother Teresa.

The Ridge has a very rich cultural calendar, however this is not just RE, it links to our SMSC learning as well.

(Culture: collective knowledge based on the society we know. Religion: a belief in something).

Walk Through the Bible

At The Ridge we invite Walk Through The Bible to teach the biblical story with accuracy, with no spiritual applications, in a way that children can enjoy and engage with the stories presented.