Selattyn C of E Primary School

Our Vision

As a loving community, our vision is to nurture each individual in our care, giving them the skills, resilience and hope to succeed and flourish, both academically and spiritually, in God’s ever changing world.

Intent

Selattyn Church of England School follows the Shropshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education and ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource in accordance with Shropshire’s ‘Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education’ (SACRE). In accordance with the agreed syllabus, Religious Education at our school:

• Is open and objective. It does not seek to urge religious beliefs on young people, nor compromise the integrity of their own religious position by promoting one tradition over another.

• Endeavours to promote a positive attitude toward people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own.

• Promotes the values and attitudes necessary for citizenship in a multi-faith and multi-racial society through developing understanding of, respect for, and dialogue with people of different beliefs, practices, races and cultures.

• Recognises similarities and differences in commitment, self-understanding and the search for truth. Respecting and valuing these for the common good.

• Is not the same as collective worship, which has its own place in the educational life of the school, contributing to an informed, reflective, compassionate and caring school community.

• Promotes community cohesion through linking with our local Church of St. Mary’s, Selattyn.

• Recognises and celebrates the range of cultures and diversity of the school through workshops, assemblies and shared experiences of staff, children and people from the local   community.

The RE curriculum at Selattyn Church of England School is organised to support the development of children’s knowledge of religious and non-religious beliefs and worldviews, practices and ways of life and enable children to make links between these. It also develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the different members of our community. Knowledge and skills are supported by first-hand experiences, including visits to local places of worship and visits from faith communities. Knowledge and skills are mapped to support children’s understanding of religion and faith. The RE curriculum is also designed to support positive attitudes and values, and encourage children to reflect and relate learning to their own experiences. Children learn that there are those who do not hold religious beliefs and have their own philosophical perspectives, as part of its commitment to ensure mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths.

The syllabus recommends that any Christian themes or ‘Big Questions’ are explored by investigating and reflecting through use of the ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource. All the Shropshire and ‘Understanding Christianity’ units therefore include a number of ‘Free Choice’ units in order to facilitate this exploration through a variety of curricular areas.

The syllabus has been created in a cyclical format to enable children to revisit and build on prior knowledge of the different beliefs and practices taught across the school.

Shropshire SACRE promote RE and Collective Worship in the Borough, develop the good teaching of Religious Education in schools and support community cohesion. At Selattyn Church of England (Maintained) Primary School, we are committed to providing our children with an exciting and positive learning environment, in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of Christianity and also other world religions to support their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

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Implementation

RE is taught in a weekly topic block each half term (Autumn One – Summer Two). Coverage is planned to link with key dates and religious festivals to provide opportunities to celebrate festivals and religions with greater consistency and contextual relevance. Work is recorded in   R.E. books and is evidenced with a variety of outcomes, including written pieces, artwork and  photographs.

As children progress through the programme of study, they are able to look deeper into spiritual, ethical, moral and social issues and with increasing breadth across Christianity and also other different religions and worldviews through time and around the world. Learning is planned and sequenced to support pupils in building an ever-increasing picture over time, constantly building their knowledge and understanding of key subject knowledge and specialist vocabulary around concepts focusing on Believing, Living and Thinking. This ensures that the investigation, exploration and reflection of their own and others’ responses to ‘Big Questions’ can continuously increase in depth, breadth and complexity. As pupils move through the Religious Education curriculum, the expectations of pupils to explain ‘what’ the beliefs, practices and values are and the relationships between them, as well as explaining ‘why’ these are important and may make a difference to people, and ‘how’ they relate, change or impact on a wider world view also increases.

‘Big Questions’ relate to what people believe and do, how people respond to big questions and issues, and how beliefs and values make a difference to lives. Therefore, the enquiry learning continuously builds to enable achievement the stated skills end points for each year. These are based on the SACRE ‘Religious Education Skills Spectrum’ which itself reflects studies not only in pupils’ development in mental capacity (including Bloom’s Taxonomy and Maslow’s “progression of needs”) and also uses models for behavioural and moral development, as well as research into spiritual development.

Using these models, the skills end points can be divided into four key developmental stages, beginning with ‘concrete’ and ‘fundamental’ understanding, progressing to ‘cognitive’ and ‘creative’ thinking, moving towards ‘critical’ reflection and analysis and thinking with ‘synergy’.

Shropshire SACRE continues to work with teachers in improving the quality of teaching and learning of RE by providing training, and publishing updated schemes of work and materials and guidance to develop and support Assessment for Learning and effective teaching and learning strategies.

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Impact

Alongside a whole school approach to celebrating different religious and cultural celebrations, the RE curriculum provides the means to promote positive images of people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history. It ensures that children develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to promote and realise a better understanding of themselves and others and to equip with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world.