Subject Leader - Mr D Arnold

Intent

Our world is enriched by a wide and profound diversity of cultures and beliefs. We as human beings are strengthened and empowered by learning from each other. Our curriculum equips children with the knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and other world views, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities. It develops an aptitude for dialogue, so that they can participate positively in society with its diverse understanding of life from religious and other world views.

Our engaging and stimulating lessons aim to engage children in an exploration of religions and nurtures informed and resilient responses to misunderstanding, stereotyping and division. It offers a place of integrity and security within which difficult questions can be tackled within a safe but challenging context.  In R.E, children discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions, in local, national and global contexts, through learning about and from religions and other world views. They learn to appraise the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response, and to agree or disagree respectfully. Our school values of community and diversity are particularly prevalent through RE teaching, in which we endeavour to broaden children’s horizons and build their cultural capital through a curriculum which progressively builds their knowledge and understanding of a wide range of religions and worldviews, equipping them with the skills to question, debate and articulate their responses.

Our curriculum is carefully sequenced throughout EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 to equip children with the skills and knowledge necessary for them to fully access the Key Stage 3 RE curriculum.  RE naturally links with a variety of other subjects. In written RE tasks, expectations match those of English lessons and RE lessons provide a rich context for developing speaking and listening skills. Themes explored in RE contribute significantly to children’s personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development which forms a major part of the PSHE curriculum too. Through the study of world religions, children broaden their historical knowledge and understand the role of art as a way of exploring and expressing faith. These cross-curricular opportunities enable children to make connections which deepen their subject knowledge, as well as their understanding of how subjects relate to each other in the wider world.

Websites of interest:

Children may find the following websites useful to further their knowledge on a certain topic or area of RE or to simply learn something new.

Home - RE:quest (request.org.uk)

Religious Studies - Topmarks Search

KS2 Religious Education - BBC Bitesize

River Parish Church : River Parish Church (rivercofe.co.uk)

River Methodist Church - Home

Sri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara (visitkent.co.uk)

Visitor Information – Montefiore Endowment

Kent Ayyappa Temple Kent Hindu Samajam | Kent Ayyappa Temple

Canterbury Mosque