Religious Education (RE)
Intent
At Kemball, it is our intent that the teaching of RE will prepare our pupils for life outside of school. We are committed to enabling our pupils to discuss, understand and explore their own beliefs, be respectful of others, ask questions about the world around them and gain a greater knowledge of the wider world, both within the local community and the wider area.
The teaching of RE, along with school and class worship, contributes to the wider ethos of the school and is an important part of the SMSC education of the pupils. RE provides our pupils with opportunities for spiritual, moral and cultural development as well as encouraging them to reflect on the morals of stories from a range of religions including their own. The RE curriculum complements PSHE, SMSC and the pupils’ understanding of British values by focusing upon questions of ethics, building relationships, and family alongside the overriding themes.
Implementation
RE is taught explicitly across all pathways for two days per half term in order to allow sufficient time to fully explore the themes, stories and festivals within the given topic. Within our curriculums, as well as teaching the six principle religions, we have incorporated themes of community, family and multi-religious celebrations such as Harvest so that pupils are able to make links between their own beliefs and between religions. This enables our curriculum to be purposeful and prepares our pupils for life beyond Kemball.
RE in the EYFS lays the foundation for future learning and as such the topics are planned to link with the overriding topics. The focus these pupils is principally upon Christianity, stories from religion, celebrations at home, and the community in order to embed the core principles for further study.
Progression and Functional pathways follow a four year rolling programme with three skill levels provided per topic to allow for progression. The levels are: Exploration, Developing Understanding, and Making connections and allow for pupils at any level within these pathways to access the topics. The repetition of the topics over the course of the pupils’ time at Kemball enables the children to revisit and build upon previous learning with opportunities to make links between both the topics and their own beliefs.
In the Engagement and Multi-Sensory pathways, the topics are designed to fit in with the overriding topics (where possible) in order to support non-subject specific learning goals of the pupils. This enables the children to make links between what they have already learnt in their topics and the RE sessions. For example, in the KS1 ‘Colour and Light’ topic, the pupils look at the festivals of Holi and Diwali so that they are able to continue their exploration of the core themes. All principle religions continue to be covered within this curriculum with links to Christian values, community and spirituality at home still incorporated within this.
In addition to the RE days, all pupils also have the opportunity explore the festivals of Harvest, Christmas and Easter annually through trips to or visits from the local church and food bank. This embeds the pupils’ awareness of Christian values in our local community and how national holidays are celebrated across the UK.
RE and SMSC is also taught in the wider curriculum to embed the pupils awareness of British values, cultural differences, world news, and individual beliefs. In addition to the curriculum above, the pupils also have access to:
- Weekly pathway assemblies focussing upon an RE, PSHE or community theme.
- Daily class worship incorporating stories, sensory exploration, and Newsround as appropriate to the needs of the pupils.
- Annual Cultural Studies week exploring diverse cultures and beliefs.
- Circle Time
Impact
Pupils at Kemball School are happy and confident individuals who are aware of their own and others religious and non-religious beliefs. Pupils at Kemball School are supported to explore this further and to make links through respectful conversations, adaptive teaching methods, and the exploration of a range of diverse beliefs.