Intent
At St. John’s Primary School, we are proud to be a Church of England school. As such we seek to follow the Church of England’s Statement of entitlement 2019 for Religious Education (RE), which states:
- To 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.
- To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied.
- To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
- To 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.
- To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.
Implementation
Our curriculum follows the Understanding Christianity resources for our teaching of Christianity, plus additional units from the Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Syllabus for Religious Education (2024). RE lessons have three key elements: making sense of beliefs; understanding the impact; making connections. We also focus on how children learn using different ways of knowing in RE lessons.
Our approach to RE is engaging and creative. The children are taught through a range of activities such as writing, discussion, art, drama, storytelling, investigating artefacts. By the end of their school lives at St. John’s, children will have learned about religious and non-religious worldviews: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and non-religious views, such as Humanism.
We also invite a range of visitors into school and off-site visits to encourage children to share experiences of a specific faith or implement workshops for children to have an interactive experience of religion in the real world. For example, children visit a Hindu Temple in Newcastle as well as the local Faith Museum as part of the Auckland Project.
We have strong clergy links with our own church, St. John’s Church, and other local ministers in our community. This enhances our teaching of RE with a modern understanding of a variety of worldviews.
Many of our RE lessons are not merely isolated learning opportunities, but our children take those principles and teaching and put them into practice in their daily lives.
Impact
In addition, we want to prepare children for the diverse landscape of modern Britain. As they progress through the school, children receive a rich diet of teaching, visitor experiences, music and worship to help inspire and engage children.
In RE, we aim to give children a grounded understanding of Christianity and the major world faiths. Children will encounter different religions and worldviews. Our curriculum is such that religious literacy is taught and developed, allowing all our pupils to become aware of, have a deeper understanding of and be tolerant of different worldviews in our locality, our country and worldwide.
An important aim of RE is that children are encouraged to reflect on their learning and make their own decisions about what they believe. RE is not to make children into religious believers, but to help them understand that faith still influences and sustains many people in the world today. Our teaching about Christians is rooted in the Bible, but we accept and embrace the diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews in other RE units.
Above all, we believe that the values underpinning our RE curriculum will enable our children to become confident, reflective, spiritual and morally aware people who will play a positive role in shaping modern Britain.
Curriculum
You can view or download the Curriculum Overview by clicking the link below.