Religious Education

“We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to one human race.” – Kofi Annan

Our vision is for everyone to flourish and enjoy life in all its fullness. Through educational and spiritual experiences, we prepare to make a positive contribution to the global community. This is reflected in our motto:

“Do it, Learn it, Live it! Preparing for our future”

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” – Mark I v3

Intent

At Dodworth St. John’s, Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development. Religious Education, like other areas of the curriculum, is underpinned by our school Christian values. Religious Education in our school will provide children with the knowledge and skills to ask and answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values, and traditions. Children will learn to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape people’s lives and their behaviour and develop their ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues.

Our intention is to promote religious understanding, respect and open-mindedness in our pupils to prepare for life in our multi-cultural society. We will challenge prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping.

Pupils will be encouraged to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection, and so preparing them for adult life.

Religious Education Long Term Plan

Implementation

At Dodworth St. John’s we follow the Programme of Study for Religion and World Views as suggested in the Leeds and York Diocesan Agreed Syllabus and use the Understanding Christianity resource to deliver some of the Christianity units of work.

Our RE curriculum plan follows three outcomes:

• Making sense of texts/beliefs
• Making connections
• Understanding the impact

Across school, we learn about a range of different religions to develop our understanding of diversity, so each year group studies Christianity and one other religion in depth (Hinduism, Judaism, Islam or Sikhism and non-religious views).

Throughout EYFS and both key stages lessons are planned, developed, and taught in a variety of ways ensuring that all children can access and participate.

Interactive, practical and creative lessons encourage our children to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions. We do this through drama, art, debate and discussion, poetry, questioning, music, prayer, and reflection. In lessons, we ask life’s big questions and provide a safe environment in which to challenge ideas studied and learn how to discuss and debate respectfully.

RE work is recorded in books to showcase the learning effectively. Children are encouraged to commit what they have learned to their long-term memories through regular retrieval practise activities.

The three outcomes covered during lessons are:

• Making sense of beliefs: Identifying and making sense of core religious and non-religious concepts and beliefs; understanding what these beliefs mean within their traditions; recognising how and why sources of authority are used, expressed, and interpreted in different ways, and developing skills of interpretation.
• Making connections: Reasoning about, reflecting on, evaluating, and connecting the concepts, beliefs and practices studied; allowing pupils to challenge ideas and the ideas to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between these ideas and pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the world.
• Understanding the Impact: Examining how and why people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.

Our long-term plan is a yearly plan which incorporates units of work from The Leeds/York Diocesan Syllabus and the Understanding Christianity resource. In addition to this we include a unit provided by the NATRE Spirited Arts competition where children are given the opportunity to answer a “Big Question” through deeper thinking and reflection applied to a piece of artwork.

Children gain a deeper understanding of the religion studied through experience and enrichment opportunities such as: handling artefacts, exploring scared texts, using imaginative play or drama to express feelings and ideas responding to images, games, stories, art, music and dance, meeting visitors from local religious communities, making visits to religious places of worship where possible, and where not, making use of videos and the internet, taking part in whole school events- (Spirited Arts, Harvest Festival, school performances) participating in moments of quiet reflection, using ICT to further explore religion and belief globally, comparing religions and worldviews through discussion, debating and communicating religious belief, worldviews and philosophical ideas and answering and asking ultimate questions posed by these.

Impact

Pupils’ progress in Religion and World Views is based on the expected outcomes outlined in the Leeds Diocesan syllabus and the Understanding Christianity document. Children will make progress in line with, or above that of other core subjects in school. This progress will be measured by end of phase outcomes (EYFS, KS1, Lower KS2 and Upper KS2).

Ongoing informal assessment and outcomes are moderated within school. When children leave Dodworth St. John’s, the expectation is that our pupils are religiously literate, and 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 non-religious worldviews 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.

Our children will be enabled to develop respect for and sensitivity to others and to those whose faiths and beliefs are different from their own.

Collective Worship

Parental right of withdrawal

• Parents (or pupils themselves if they are aged 18 or over) have the right to request that the pupil be withdrawn from all or part of the RE provided.
• There is no requirement to provide reasons for the request, but schools will appreciate the opportunity to discuss the RE curriculum and arrangements for the withdrawal with parents.
• The school may also wish to review such a request each year, in discussion with the parents.
• The right of withdrawal does not extend to other areas of the curriculum when, as may happen on occasion, spontaneous questions on religious matters are raised by pupils or there are issues related to religion that arise in other subjects such as history or citizenship.

Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS)

All Church of England dioceses and the Methodist Church use the Church of England Education Office’s framework for the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) under Section 48 of the Education Act 2005.  The SIAMS Evaluation Schedule sets out the expectations for the conduct of the Statutory Inspection of Anglican, Methodist and ecumenical Schools under Section 48 of the Education Act 2005.

Purpose and focus of SIAMS inspections

SIAMS inspection focuses on the impact of the Church school’s Christian vision on pupils and adults. This involves looking at the school’s Christian vision, the provision the school makes because of this vision and how effective this provision is in enabling all pupils to flourish. Church schools will employ a variety of strategies and styles appropriate to, and reflective of, their context in order to be distinctively and effectively Christian in their character and ethos. SIAMS inspectors therefore do not look for a set template of what a Church school should be like, but rather take the context of the school into account and base their evaluation on the outcomes rather than the process.

The Evaluation Schedule has one inspection question: how effective is the school’s distinctive Christian vision, established and promoted by leadership at all levels, in enabling pupils and adults to flourish?

This is explored through seven strands:

• Vision and Leadership
• Wisdom, Knowledge, and Skills
• Character Development: Hope, Aspiration and Courageous Advocacy
• Community and Living Well Together
• Dignity and Respect
• The impact of collective worship
• The effectiveness of religious education

One overall grade is awarded reflecting the contribution of these strands to the flourishing of pupils and adults in a Church school.

As of September 2023, there will be a new SIAMS Inspection Framework. This section of the website and any adjustments made to our curriculum will be updated in due course to reflect this. A link to the new SIAMS Framework can be found, below.

Useful weblinks and documents

RE Statement of Entitlement for Church Schools: 210219 RE Statement of Entitlement for Church schools.pdf (d3hgrlq6yacptf.cloudfront.net)

SIAMS Framework (effective from September 2023): SIAMS Framework September 2023.pdf (churchofengland.org)

Our Religious Education Ambassador is Mrs Whiteley. If you have any questions about R.E. please email d.whiteley@smat.org.uk.