Kirkby La Thorpe
Church of England Primary Academy

Welcome toKirkby La Thorpe

Church of England Primary Academy

Kindness Learning Tolerance

Religious Education

Religious Education at KLT

Intent

A high-quality RE curriculum is essential to meet the statutory requirement to teach a broad and balanced curriculum. At the heart of RE in church schools are the teaching of Christianity, rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ. As part of an inclusive church school community, learning about other religions and worldviews is embedded in KLT's RE curriculum journey for all our children.

At KLT, the children and their families can expect a religious education curriculum that is rich and varied, enabling learners to acquire a thorough knowledge and understanding, making links between the beliefs, practices and value systems of differing faiths and world views.

Our school uses an enquiry approach that engages with, for example, biblical text. It helps develop religious and theological literacy and aims to build our children's understanding and appreciation for the expression of beliefs, cultural practices and influence of principle religions and worldviews in the local, national and wider global community.

Links with the Christian values of the school and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are intrinsic to the RE curriculum and should significantly impact learners.

Implementation

The teaching and implementation of the Religious curriculum at Kirkby La Thorpe Primary School is based on the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus and Understanding Christianity resource.

We organise our pupils’ learning around the following structure:

Pupils should develop key skills in RE to enhance learning, and this should be evident across key stages:

1. Investigation and enquiry: asking relevant and increasingly deep questions; using a range of sources and evidence, including sacred texts; identifying and talking about key concepts.

2. Critical thinking and reflection: analysing information to form a judgement; reflecting on beliefs and practices, ultimate questions and experiences.

3. Empathy: considering the thoughts, feelings, experiences, attitudes, beliefs and values of others; seeing the world through the eyes of others.

4. Interpretation: interpreting religious language and the meaning of sacred texts; drawing meaning from, for example, artefacts and symbols.

5. Analysis: distinguishing between opinion, belief and fact; distinguishing between the features of different religions.

6. Evaluation: enquiring into religious issues and drawing conclusions with reference to experience, reason, evidence and dialogue.

Religious education is delivered by teaching specific concepts, knowledge, skills, attitudes and, when appropriate, through opportunities for purposeful cross-curricular links.

Church schools must provide accurate knowledge and understanding of religions and world views. As a school, we provide;

A challenging and robust curriculum based on an accurate theological framework.
An assessment process which has rigour and demonstrates progression based on knowledge and understanding of core religious concepts.
A curriculum that draws on the richness and diversity of religious experience worldwide.
A pedagogy that instils respect for different views and interpretations and where real dialogue and theological enquiry takes place.
The opportunity for pupils to deepen their understanding of the religion and world views as lived by believers.
RE that makes a positive contribution to SMSC development.

At KLT, we are dedicated to the teaching and delivery of a high-quality Religious education curriculum through well planned and resourced syllabus. We have determined that RE will be taught in bespoke units across the school year. By following the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus, we have identified 4 key areas of enquiry that run through all our compulsory units:

God: What do people believe about God?
Being human: How does faith and belief affect the way people live their lives?
Community, worship and celebration: How do people express their religion and beliefs?
Life journey: rites of passage: How do people mark important events in life?

To support the teaching of Christianity, the school also uses the Understanding Christianity Resource, which encourages children to explore core Bible texts and consider possible implications. Our teaching and learning approach enables pupils to move from an understanding of the biblical text to understand what this means for Christians, including opportunities for pupils to examine and evaluate connections between these ideas and the wider world. Each unit takes a core concept and gives a key question through which to explore. The unit identifies the knowledge 'building blocks' and focused outcomes expected of pupils by the end of teaching.

Each unit incorporates three elements:

Making sense of the text – Developing skills of reading and interpretation; understanding how Christians interpret, handle and use biblical texts; making sense of the meanings of texts for Christians
Understanding the impact – Examining ways in which Christians respond to biblical texts and teachings and how they put their beliefs into action in diverse ways within the Christian community and the world
Making connections – Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting the texts and concepts studied, and discerning possible connections between these and pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the world.

Impact

Appropriate to age at the end of their education in Church schools, the expectation is that all pupils are religiously literate and, as a minimum, are able to:

Give a theologically informed and thoughtful account of Christianity as a living and diverse faith.
Show an informed and respectful attitude to religions and world views in their search for God and meaning.
Engage in meaningful and informed dialogue with those of other faiths and none.
Reflect critically and responsibly on their own spiritual, philosophical and ethical convictions