Author: S Smith

RE at
The Priory Parish

Subject Policy
2019-2020

“RE helps me to grow by teaching me the lessons of Jesus.”
Mia Y3
“RE helps me to know that God is right next to me.”
Chloe Y3
‘’RE helps me learn how to be kind and have more faith in others. It helps me to take a moment to think of me and the world.”
Ella-Jade Y6

Our Vision
“As a Christian family, together, we will realise our God- given ability to change the world.”
Based on the story of the Good Samaritan
Luke 25-37
Our vision underpins all that we do at The Priory Parish. It guides us, drives us and enables us to strategically plan our way forward as a school.

‘RE must have a very high profile within the church school curriculum and learning activities should provide fully for the needs of all learners. Learners should be inspired by the subject and develop a wide range of higher level skills such as enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection to deepen their understanding of the impact of religion on the world. Attainment should be high and progress significant in developing an understanding of Christianity and a broad range of religions and world views. At the heart of RE in church schools is the teaching of Christianity, rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There is a clear expectation that as inclusive communities, church schools encourage learning about other religions and world views... fostering respect for them.’
‘Church of England Statement of Entitlement for RE.’

Statutory Requirements
Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which:
‘Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils; and prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and
experiences of later life.’
Religious Education must be taught in accordance with the Trust Deed and should reflect the rites, practices and beliefs of the Church of England. The governing body is responsible for the subject in the school. This is delegated to the Head teacher and the Religious Education subject leader on a daily basis. Following the Diocese of Chester Guidelines for Religious Education, the majority of work in Religious Education will be based on the Christian faith with the introduction of other major world religions- Judaism at Key Stage 1 and then the study of Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam at Key Stage 2. Religious Education will be allocated no less than 5% of the timetable. In Key Stage 1 this amounts to between 40-50 minutes per week totalling 36 hours over the year. In Key Stage 2 children should be taught Religious Education for at least 1 hour per week totalling 45 hours over the year.
Withdrawals
Parents have a right by law to withdraw their children from the Religious Education curriculum. In this event, the school will undertake responsibility for the supervision of withdrawn pupils with regard to health and safety, alternative work will be provided.

RE at our school...
RE has a very high profile within The Priory School curriculum and learning activities provide fully for the needs of all learners. Learners are inspired by the subject and develop a wide range of higher level skills such as reflection, enquiry, analysis, interpretation and evaluation to deepen their understanding of the impact of religion on the world. The application of these skills can be seen in our normal day to day life at The Priory.
Children apply their skills across the curriculum, during assemblies, in the ways they treat each other and how they treat God’s world. Our children understand that the things they discuss and learn in RE, can play a huge part in making our world a better place.
Pupils understand that they are part of an environment in which their views, opinions and ideas will be valued and nurtured. They feel safe to ask ‘big questions’ and can confidently share their thoughts with their peers and staff. Pupils are challenged to think deeply, critically and responsibly. They are encouraged to self- reflect and think about their place in our school, community and world. We strive to develop or children spiritually and understand the crucial need in this being part of the whole curriculum, not just R.E. Designated reflection areas are seen in all of our classrooms which underpin the work we do in RE.
The children are given opportunities to think ethically and how they play an important role in protecting God’s world. For example learning about recycling, if it is appropriate to have elephants in the circus, saving the rainforest, gender stereotyping and much more. We encourage them to be brave and courageous. Children relate this work to the greater vision of how Jesus would want us to live our lives and treat the world.
Pupils are given opportunities to participate and learn about the role of Christianity worldwide. They work collaboratively to support local Christian charity ‘Charles Thompson Mission’ and learn about the roles of Christian charities in RE. The Priory also has strong links with ‘Lady Grace’ school in Uganda. Children feel immensely proud and supportive of these links. They play an active role in raising money for these charities.

'The Priory Parish C of E is a caring school underpinned by a strong Christian ethos.'
-Ofsted 2017

Aims and purpose of RE
Religious Education should make a distinctive contribution to pupils learning by enabling them to reflect upon themselves as whole people, experiencing life through the body, the mind and spirit.
To help children to understand the significance of religion and its contribution to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
To help children to understand the religious experience and traditions of others.
To encourage children to develop their own beliefs, values and ideas in the light of their own experiences.
To help children to learn how to appreciate what is involved in both individual and corporate responsibility, so developing a sense of community and how we live with others to create a wholly integrated society.
To promote the teaching and doctrine of the Church of England.
To develop respect and understanding of other people, their beliefs and daily lived experiences.
RE should be reflected throughout the school as we consciously strive to achieve a positive, compassionate, sharing and happy ethos, based on the reinforcement of good behaviour and attitude.

Our Values and Attitudes
At The Priory our children will:
Work with others, listening to each other’s ideas, and treat others with respect;
Have opportunities to consider their own experiences, attitudes and values, and those of other people;
Identify high level questions and suggest answers;
Develop their understanding of why certain things are held to be right or wrong;
Relate to moral and religious issues.
Develop spiritually and understand that they are valued and important to our world.

Love
Faith
Responsibility
Kindness
Respect
friendship

Planning
Curriculum planning for RE is based on the ‘RE Syllabus for Primary Schools in the Diocese of Chester’ in which we helped to create as part of the Anglican RE cluster group. The planning is highly effective in ensuring pupils develop a broad balance of skills.
Early Years
In Pre-School, children will have opportunities to find out and learn about the world they live in. These experiences include:
learning about the beliefs and cultures of others;
Sharing the celebration of different festivals;
Hearing stories from a variety of cultural and religious traditions.

F2-Y6
The rest of the school follow the planning outline from the Diocese of Chester scheme which our school had an input in creating. F2 present their work in the form of a floor book which show cases all of their exploration and learning in RE.
Lessons are planned around core concepts which include :Good News, God, Christian Community, Incarnation, Kingdom of God, Forgiveness, Salvation, Resurrection, Discipleship, Holy Spirit, Creation and World Religion.
Overarching questions for each concept are answered as part of the children’s work.
Teachers assess this work using the key questions and complete an assessment achievement tracker; which help teachers make a judgement on children’s attainment in RE. These assessments support a final judgement being made at the end of the school year.
RSE
We use our RE teaching to also underpin the teaching in RSE. We use our whole school vision and Christian values to promote healthy, kind and respectful relationships in our pupils. We also use the ‘Heart Smart’ resource to support this teaching. Our version of Heart Smart has been especially developed for Christian schools and uses examples from the Bible to support our teachings about relationships. See our RSE policy for further details.

Collaboration and R.E
Many aspects of our work as part of the Anglican cluster and community enable us to share our skills and work collaboratively.
Examples of this include:
Big Sing!
Birkenhead Blue Heart
Ethos groups
CPAS Ventures
Prayer Stations at Christ the King

Linking RE and collective worship
Our collective worship planning is closely linked to the themes we are currently studying in RE lessons.
This enables knowledge to become ‘deep’ and applied to different contexts and situations.
Our school vicar Rev Paul Bentley works hard to deepen many of the concepts learnt, alongside linking this to our vision and Christian values. There are many opportunities for reflection and the chance to ask ‘big questions’ as part of this process.

Spiriutal Development
The term needs to be seen as applying to something fundamental in the human condition which is not necessarily experienced through the physical senses and/or expressed through everyday language. It has to do with relationships to other people and for believers, with God. It has to do with the universal search for individual identity - with our responses to challenging experiences, such as death, suffering, beauty and encounters with good and evil. It is to do with the search for meaning and purpose in life and for values by which to live"
SCAA discussion paper
Article: Making Sense of Spiritual Development: David Smith
David Smith’s work for the Stapleford Centre ‘Making sense of Spiritual Development’ (1999) helpfully presented a structure for mapping the progression of spiritual development across the curriculum. He suggested four windows into spiritual development:
Spiritual Capacities: recognition that all human beings are capable of spiritual growth through capacities such as self-awareness, reflection, empathy, imagination and creativity.
Spiritual Experiences: ways in which pupils can encounter the spiritual dimension of life.
Spiritual Understanding: the need to have developed an understanding to make sense of the spiritual experiences encountered and capacities exercised.
Spiritual responses: how this experience and understanding impacts on our lives and shapes the way in which we live our lives.
After reading the article, we have adapted the ‘spiritual capacity approach to cover all aspects of spiritual development. Each child will be given many opportunities to encounter each capacity across the whole curriculum.

Spiritual capacities
Spiritual Capacities- a concept by author David Smith notes a number of human capacities commonly identified as related to spiritual development. Coverage of each capacity is crucial in enabling children to develop spiritually.
Spiritual Capacities - which include children’s ability to:
Be guided by their beliefs and values and be willing to take a stand to defend them.
Be self-aware and empathise with the experience of others in the school and wider community.
Love themselves, care for themselves, believe in their potential to achieve, and find inner strength and resilience when facing challenges .
Exercise imagination and creativity, appreciate beauty in the world and be alive to experiences of awe and wonder.
Be intrigued by mystery and be open to an awareness of the transcendent in the whole of life.
Be comfortable with stillness and silence and open to engage in reflection/meditation/prayer ·
Be ready to say sorry when mistakes are made, to forgive themselves and to forgive others.
Be willing to take risks and to reflect, learn and grow following experiences of failure as well as success.
Demonstrate curiosity and open mindedness when exploring life’s big questions.
Appreciate and be thankful for what is good in life like friends and family, and show generosity towards others .

Evaluation and Monitoring
RE monitoring will include scrutiny of children’s work as well as classroom observations and most importantly, pupil voice.
The RE lead will also take into account the views of children through questions and regular feedback. Progress and achievement in Religious Education is reported to parents in the annual report at the end of the school year.
The RE lead will manage resources.
The RE lead will endeavour to keep up to date with information, initiatives and developments in Religious Education and disseminate this as appropriate.
The RE lead will be aware of staff development needs and encourage continuing professional development.
The RE lead will facilitate the sharing of good practice and be a leader of good practice.
The RE lead will be responsible for drawing up an action plan for Religious Education and support the SIAMS process.
SEN
Children with special educational needs will work alongside the other children in their group, as in other curriculum areas, but differentiation in approach, language and expected outcome will be appropriate to the varying needs in the class. We aim to meet the full entitlement of every child in our school. To optimize inclusion the children’s differing needs for learning (including children with special educational needs) will be addressed through differentiated activities. ‘

Marking
In line with our school marking policy.
Presentation of work
Work will be presented beautifully and thoughtfully, really capturing the ideas and responses of the children. A range of work and engaging experiences should be evident in books, on displays and in the memories our children have and share. We have high expectations in R.E as an academic subject and encourage only the highest expectations of grammar, spelling, effort and creativity.