Religious Education
Religious Education is at the heart of our school. The school follows the Religious Education Syllabus devised by the Liverpool Diocese. Our syllabus incorporates a wide range of topics centred on Christian teaching. Lessons include many aspects of the Christian faith including increasing the knowledge of the Bible; relating religious teaching to current society and understanding the significance of main events in the church’s calendar. Some topics are revisited each year so that children increase their understanding in line with their increasing maturity.
Our strong RE curriculum is highly influential in the spiritual, moral, cultural, social and emotional development of pupils, making a significant contribution in preparing pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. It strengthens our understanding of Christian values, empowering pupils to make positive choices.
Teaching our core syllabus 'Questful RE’ we aim to equip our children with the skills and knowledge to hold their own, informed conversations about faith and religion. Through this syllabus, we ensure the opportunity to develop a wide range of higher level skills such as enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection, thus deepening children’s understanding of the impact of religion on the world and enabling them to express personal views with consideration and confidence. We supplement Questful RE with Understanding Christianity, a resource developed by the Church of England Education Office. The key purpose of the Understanding Christianity project is to help all teachers support pupils in developing their own thinking and their understanding of Christianity, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. Units in Questful RE are paired with units from Understanding Christianity to ensure our children receive a deep, rich RE education.
The Role of other Faiths and Cultures
Our school promotes the fundamental British value of respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. As part of our aim to help children fully embrace society and the wider world community, other faiths are valued and treated with respect. Our RE syllabus incorporates the teaching of other main world religions. As such, whilst the majority of the curriculum is centred around Christianity, some time will be spent on other major world religions. Many units begin with an exploration of an aspect of Christianity before moving on to look at similar aspect of a different faith. As an example, when children in Year 1 learn about the Christian festival of Harvest, they also explore the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
RE in the Early Years
In Reception, we follow the Liverpool Diocesan Board of Education Chatterbox units. These begin with the children opening a 'chatterbox' filled with objects and artefacts that prompt discussion, or 'chatter'.
At the start of the unit, the children will open the chatterbox together and discover what is inside. They take turns looking at and handling the objects. The conversation and questions will generate ideas for the learning activities. The children’s ideas, comments, questions, work, pictures, writing and photos are recorded by the teacher.
