Religious Education (RE)

Our vision at Aldrington is:

Together, we are Learning God’s Way: seeing our learning through His eyes so that as a school community, we show love, responsibility and integrity now and in the future.

We actively seek to equip each unique individual with the skills and knowledge that allow them to flourish in their learning, respect themselves and others, and achieve their God-given potential.

 (Proverbs 22:6)

 

At Aldrington, we deliver Religious Education (RE) in line with the Brighton and Hove Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. This provides an effective RE programme of study to enable pupils to have the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to hold balanced and informed conversations about religions and worldviews.

RE has a significant role in the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) understanding. Primarily, we develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith and enable them to investigate and reflect on some of the most fundamental ‘big’ questions in life. In developing their spiritual understanding, we help the children to compare the beliefs and practices of other world religions with our Christian faith, with the teaching of units on Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Humanism. Children reflect on what it means to have a faith and to develop their own spiritual knowledge and understanding. RE contributes to pupils’ personal development and well-being and to community cohesion by promoting mutual respect and open-mindedness towards others in a diverse society. We encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection.

Our Spiritual Vision is articulated as follows:

We encourage all children to engage with the Christian faith, to grow in their understanding of God’s love for them and to develop a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Each child is encouraged to develop a practical vision of Christianity and its outworking in their lives through love and service based on the teachings of Jesus and an understanding of God’s word.

 

Intent

In line with the Church of England’s Statement of Entitlement (2019), it is our aim that pupils:

• know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text;

• gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and world views appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied;
• engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience;
• recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places;
• explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.

 

Implementation

As a school we teach Christianity using the Understanding Christianity enquiry cycle of engage, enquire, explore, evaluate and express whilst creating a balance of the three areas of:

• making sense of the text, worldviews and their sources (theology) – 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 impact (social sciences) – examining ways in which Christians respond to biblical texts and teachings, and how they put their beliefs into actions in diverse ways within the Christian community and in the world;
• making connections (philosophy) – 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.

 Our curriculum units are taken from The Emmanuel Project, where 52% of the units are on Christianity. Each year group teaches six half-termly units and relates learning to Christianity with the other major faith units. We start with Christian units in EYFS (enriched with half-termly stories from other world religions). In Key Stage 1, alongside Christianity, pupils begin to learn about the Abrahamic religions of Judaism (Y1) and Islam (Y2). This knowledge of world faiths and their beliefs and traditions broadens further in Key Stage 2, when the juniors begin to learn about Hinduism (Y3), Sikhism (Y4), Buddhism (Y5) and Humanism (Y6). In this way, as they age, the children have a stronger, deeper knowledge of Christianity from which to branch out and compare their knowledge of other religious beliefs. The children reflect on their own beliefs and understanding, deepening their own spirituality but always being respectful and knowledgeable of the beliefs of people around them in their local community and the world.

Every year, we deepen our knowledge and understanding of both the Christian text and faith and our own personal beliefs through a fortnight in the summer term: a week of Prayer Space (led by Off the Fence) followed by our school Faith in Arts week. The whole school follows the annual theme based on the NATRE Spirited Arts and explores through art, song, prayer, bible study and journaling, debate, poetry, signing and worship. Talented visitors from our local community, for example parents and governors, join us to lead workshops.  At the end, we celebrate all we have learned and worship together, sharing our work and discoveries with friends and family in our Faith in Arts Families’ Gallery. It’s a wonderful time of immersing ourselves in the arts and in God. In 2023, the theme was ‘God’s Good Earth: Green Faith. Green Future?’, whilst in 2024, it was ‘Faith in Humanity: no to racism, yes to respect’. Photos can be found on the News page.

      

 

      

 

 

Impact

The subject lead monitors the teaching and learning through the year by having oversight of planning; using regular RE book scrutiny; pupil voice; and reviewing attainment data in all units taught.

Pupil voice shows that the children have a very good understanding of what they are learning and are being encouraged to make links between the world religions, their beliefs and practices, as well as make connections with Christianity. They have an increasing understanding of their friends and the wider community and a greater respect for the beliefs of others. They are also gaining in self-confidence in their own value and the importance of their personal beliefs to themselves and others – whether they are Christian or not.

In discussion, pupils are beginning to make connections between other curricular subjects and God, seeing where spirituality links in to our everyday lives – those moments of reflection or wonder and awe at something or someone greater than us.

Faith in Arts 2024: learning to sign our new worship songs - KS1 'We're all amazing'; KS2 'One family under God' (Where Peace Begins)

taught by our friend from Goldstone Church, Jan Munns, who communicates through British Sign Language and lip reading.

 Prayer Space week 2024-

Off the Fence write a report each year, celebrating their Prayer Space experiences with the children.

Prayer Space report 2024

How did the children interact with Prayer Space?
Year 6 children enjoying the Prayer Space Activities

What were the children's reflections on the Prayer Space?

Year 3 children's responses to their experiences in Prayer Space.

 

Our School Community helping our RE learning:

If you would like to visit one of our RE lessons, to share your personal experiences of faith or support the children in their learning, please let your child’s class teacher know or speak directly with the RE subject leader: Debby Butters.

If you would like to share your arts skills and/or your time and support during our Faith in Arts week in June each year, please contact the office or the RE subject leader.

 

To read the RE Policy, please click on the following button.  RE Policy 2024

 

To review the long term RE curriculum plan, please click on the following button.Long term RE planning

 

To review how we assess RE learning, please click on the following button.

Example of RE Assessment

To find out more about our Christian approach to learning at Aldrington, go to 'Ethos' on our 'School' page: Vision and Values; Christian Distinctiveness.

 

For more information on the main resources we use, please visit:

• Understanding Christianity -  http://www.understandingchristianity.org.uk 
• The Emmanuel Project - https://www.cofesuffolk.org/schools/resources-and-information/religious-education/emmanuelproject
• NATRE Spirited Arts - https://www.natre.org.uk/about-natre/projects/spirited-arts