BAYTON C. E. PRIMARY SCHOOL
RE Policy
2013-2016
1.
Rationale
2. Our Vision
3. Aims and Objectives
4. Children with Special Needs
5. Approaches to teaching and Learning in RE
6. Curriculum planning in religious education
7. Assessment and Recording
8. Bible Club
9. Monitoring and Management
10. Role of the Co-Ordinator
11. Resources
12. Review of RE policy
Rationale
Religious Education supports children to develop an understanding of the beliefs, values
and practices which different religious traditions hold about the concepts of God or
about a particular view of the world.
The responses that are provided by religions to some of the fundamental questions of
life offer the believer a sense of identity and belonging, and within the school context
provide children with opportunities to seek answers to their questioning thereby
enabling them to reflect on personal beliefs, values and purpose.
Religious Education promotes values and moral perspectives which are significant to the
beliefs and lifestyles adopted by religious communities.
Our Vision
As a Church of England school we hold Christian Principles at the heart of our policy
and practice and these underpin the ethos of traditional Values which we are currently
reviewing in our endeavour to remain forward-thinking in our development of Christian
Distinctiveness within our school.
Respect, Responsibility and Compassion are Values that staff considered to be
important for our school community during recent review of our School ethos. Parents
and children are in the process of being invited to consider Christian Values that hold
greater significance to themselves as individuals. These collective Values will provide
clarity and specific vision for our school community at Bayton CE Primary, for the
future.
Our school mission statement ‘Enjoy Challenge’ underpins our ethos of high
expectations of our school community. Our vision statement will be reviewed later in
2013, once our core values have been established.
Aims and Objectives
We seek to provide an understanding of what Religion means, the importance that it
plays in the lives of others and for ourselves as a Christian community, and how
religious faiths are expressed in daily life and routines, as we develop our own Christian
Values. Our overall aims are:
To help children to develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity, religious
traditions in the Christian faith, of what it means to be a Christian, and belonging to a
Christian school community
To develop an awareness of spiritual and moral issues in life experiences
To develop knowledge and understanding of other principle religions and religious
traditions and value systems represented in Great Britain
To develop an understanding of and appreciation for religious and cultural differences
from their own through respect and celebration of diversity
To encourage investigative and research skills through a base of knowledge and
experiences on which children can form their own beliefs and judgements about
religious aspects
Children with special needs
We provide a caring, secure and happy environment where every child can feel that
they are respected and their individual needs taken into account. We believe that all
children can succeed and have something at which they can excel. We ensure that
teaching is matched to the needs of the child with special educational requirements by
reviewing a range of factors that will ensure that the religious education curriculum
and activities involved in learning RE are fully accessible for these children.
Approaches to teaching and learning in RE
We believe that high quality teaching in RE allows children to learn about religious
traditions and to take from this knowledge and understanding the ability to reflect on
what different concepts and beliefs might mean to them. We encourage children to
consider and extend their own values and opinions in relation to programmes of study
researched. Children build on their own experiences of Christian religious traditions
namely Easter, Harvest and Christmas to develop their own religious thinking. We
regularly visit our village church to celebrate Christian traditions through prayers,
readings, songs and drama. Each Key Stage keeps an RE Celebrations folder which
provides a record and examples of some of the exciting events and learning
opportunities that may not be recorded in children’s RE books such as our Easter
themed week when Open the Book volunteers and staff presented interactive stations
depicting the Christian Easter Story.
Visits to places of worship are encouraged for children to experience the role of
religions in other communities. We have built an inter-school link with an inner city
school with children and staff from multi-faith backgrounds in the vision of developing
a clearer understanding of religious views of different groups for both our community
and that of Victoria Park Academy, Sandwell.
We recognise that every class in our school has children of differing abilities and we
therefore provide learning opportunities that provide appropriate challenge to the
ability of the child. Examples of how learning is met effectively might include:
Setting tasks which offer an open-ended response or a variety of theories
Providing activities that meet the needs of different ability groups in class
Using teaching assistants to support individual children and small groups
Encouraging children to enjoy opportunities to work together across a range of ability
groups
Setting tasks that require more demanding skills at appropriately challenging levels of
complexity
Curriculum Planning in religious education
The children in Reception class are taught RE as part of a cross-curricular approach
through the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Making Relationships
and Self-Confidence and Awareness, and more discretely as RE through Understanding
the World: People and Communities. RE forms an integral part of topic work covered
during the year. We relate features of Belonging to home and the school community to
our school Christian Values and principles. The children learn about Harvest
thanksgiving and the First Christmas story, the Easter story with an emphasis on new
beginnings, and enjoy aspects of Divali (lights) and Chinese cultural traditions through
Celebrations, where they work closely with children from pre-school to enjoy related
activities. Coverage of PSE and RE are linked to objectives set out in the strands
related to age development that form Early Learning Goals.
We plan our religious education curriculum in accordance with the Agreed Syllabus for
Worcestershire (2010) and SACRE for Key Stage 1 and 2. We also resource QCA
Curriculum documents. We ensure that topics build upon prior learning in RE and offer
opportunities for children to develop skills and knowledge in each unit through planned
progression that offers increasing challenge as they progress through school.
Long term planning currently maps the Programme of Study for each term for both KS1
and KS2 over a 2 Year rolling programme, with Reception Curriculum being determined
by the children themselves and subsequently relevant themes may be applied, for
example Under the Sea topic linked to Jonah and The Whale.
The following is a Curriculum map showing the main topics covered by each year group:
Year Group
Reception
Years 1 & 2
Religions Covered
Christianity
People and Communities
Personal, Social and Emotional
Development
Christianity
Judaism
Buddhism
Years 3 & 4
Christianity
Judaism
Hinduism
Years 5 & 6
Christianity
Islam
Sikhism
Teachers have recently assessed children’s ability in RE, to provide a baseline
assessment supported by Level descriptors provided by the Worcester Diocese . As a
small school community, valuable staff discussions about children have supported
judgements alongside observations during lessons. Work is marked on completion and
comments made as necessary. Teachers keep a record of individual progress and
attainment and inform parents annually on the child’s report. We are also developing
portfolios of evidence to support our judgements.
The RE Co-Ordinator will work closely with the Headteacher to analyse results and
ensure clear progression is achieved consistently by all children, whilst also ensuring
that manageable but challenging targets are implemented for children to aspire to.
Bible Club
A lunchtime club has been formed to enable children to access stories from the New
Testament using Bibles and audio CDs and to subsequently enjoy art-related activities
linked to stories. The children begin each session with quiet contemplation and
personal reflection, a candle is lit and the children can view natural environment
settings to help channel a peaceful focus. The children take responsibility for planning
and putting up a display to exhibit to the rest of the school the Bible stories that they
have researched.
Monitoring and management
The RE Subject co-ordinator, with the Headteacher, is responsible for monitoring the
quality of teaching and learning in RE. This is done through both informal and formal
discussions with staff to develop ideas and to raise concerns, through INSET training
sessions, lesson observations, pupil evaluations, book samples, and monitoring of
curriculum coverage and planning.
Teaching staff are responsible for offering the agreed Key Stage Programmes of
Study (Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in Worcestershire 2010) and in
evaluating how delivery of Curriculum content and faith concepts impacts on broadening
pupils’ knowledge and understanding.
Role of the Co-Ordinator
There is a named Co-Ordinator responsible for supporting colleagues in the teaching of
RE and for providing a strategic lead and direction in working alongside the
Headteacher, to further develop the profile of this subject in school.
It is also the role of the Co-Ordinator to :
be aware of the place of RE and its development throughout school, its continuity and
progression across Key Stages
Attend relevant training and provide feedback to colleagues through staff meetings
and INSET sessions
Monitor the use and need of resources throughout the school
Evaluate the RE Policy and practice, support colleagues in moderation of pupils’ work for
teacher assessment, supported by Level Descriptors provided by Worcestershire
Diocese (2013)
Liaise with Open the Book Volunteers, church wardens, the Rector Reverend Stephen
Owens and Victoria Park School, Sandwell to develop further enhancement of the RE
Curriculum and provide opportunities for rich experiences for the whole school
community
Resources
Resources for teaching the RE curriculum are kept in a central store and include a
collection of artefacts, posters, videos, DVDS and books that are contained in labelled
boxes linked to each major religion or unit of work. The school library also holds a
supply of RE related books to support staff and pupils’ research. RE educational
websites also support our school community in enriching teaching and learning of
religious beliefs.
Review of RE Policy
This policy was drawn up by the RE Co-Ordinator, Mrs Terri Wooldridge, supported by
the Headteacher, Mrs Avis Pounder. It was completed in April 2013.
It was formally adopted by the Governing Body in May 2013
Its implementation is regarded as the responsibility of all staff.
It will be monitored in accordance with the school’s Monitoring Policy and timetable.
This policy is scheduled for review in 2016.
Signed: …………………………………………… Headteacher
Date ………………………………………….
Signed: ………………………………………….. RE Co-Ordinator
Date ………………………………………….
Signed: ………………………………………….. Chair of Academic
Date …………………………………………
Committee