Religious Education at St Thomas’
Intent – Our vision for Religious Education
At St Thomas’ we strive to care for, nurture and educate our pupils and in doing so, we teach them how to grow in faith with the knowledge that God is with them always. St Thomas’ takes pride in being a church school and offers a unique opportunity for all staff to model Christianity to pupils and parents.
Across the whole school day and across the whole curriculum we show our pupils, parents and school community how being a Christian makes a difference. Not just in worship and in RE lessons, but in the way we approach everything that goes on in our school, to bring life in all its fullness. In everything we do, in all our documentation, in the school organisation and management, it should be obvious St Thomas’ school is distinctively Christian.
The aim of Religious Education is to allow all our learners to explore and develop a relationship with God and Jesus as well as explore other major world faiths. Our vision of growing together through faith in Jesus Christ, ‘Let all you do be done in love.’ (1 Corinthians 16), underpins all we do and our teaching in RE provides opportunities for pupils to further explore how this relates to our everyday lives.
The curriculum that we follow is based on The Blackburn Diocese Questful R.E.
We intend to deliver a curriculum that:
- Is appropriate to the needs of our pupils and that reflects our wider community.
- Inspires creative learning through excellent teaching practices that build on prior knowledge and allows for a progression of skills as the pupils re-visit core concepts with a spiral approach curriculum.
- Encourages pupils to reflect critically and engage with ‘big questions’.
- Provides the pupils with a knowledge and understanding of Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide.
- Develops the pupils’ understanding of the way in which beliefs influence people’ behaviour, practices and outlook.
- Contributes to the pupils’ development of their own spiritual, moral, social and philosophical convictions by exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.
- Enables pupils to understand about other world religions and world views, their impact on society and culture, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights.
- Encourages deeper thinking skills to explore issues in the world around them. Pupils are encouraged to share their own thoughts and beliefs about the world around them.
- Promotes an understanding of British Values and ensures they are prepared for a life in modern Britain.
RE prepares young people for citizenship in today’s diverse society. It enables them to develop sensitivity to, and respect others. Through authentic encounters with living faith communities, pupils will develop diversity dexterity and equipped with the ability to hold an informed conversation about religious beliefs and practices.
Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education, 2023.
Implementation – How we plan for, and teach Religious Education
The implementation of our intent is carefully planned by staff, using the Questful RE curriculum provided by the Blackburn Diocese of Education. In accordance with The Church of England’s RE Statement of Entitlement (Education Office 2016), a minimum of 5% of class teaching time over the course of a year will be dedicated to the teaching of RE (equal to 36 hours in KS1 and 45 hours in KS2). At least two-thirds of this time will focus on Christianity, with the remaining time focussing on the teaching of non-Christian faiths and world views, predominantly Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.
We recognise pupils need to hear first-hand experiences from a wide range of people talking about their faith, so we work closely with St Thomas’ church, ensuring pupils are given the opportunity to visit there regularly, both for services and as part of their RE lessons. Indeed, there are no presumptions made as to the religious backgrounds, beliefs and values of pupils or staff and we strive to create an atmosphere of respect and understanding so that all individuals are able to share their own experiences freely.
Questful RE takes pupils on a journey of exploration as within each unit, they investigate a series of key questions in response to different religious ideas. As they work alongside their classmates using a variety of teaching and learning activities, pupils reflect upon, evaluate and reach their own decisions in response to these key questions.
Whilst responding to the key questions during a unit focussing on Christianity, pupils will also build a better understanding of the Biblical timeline. There are eight core concepts at the heart of Christianity that together tell God’s big story. The core concepts are expressed in the Bible and lived out by Christian people each day. These big ideas reveal God’s salvation plan, the big story.
During RE lessons, pupils may record work in individual RE books and / or whole class ‘scrapbooks’ to facilitate the intent that pupils will learn through a variety of activities and teaching methods.
Each class has its own reflection / RE area which provides pupils with an age-appropriate area in which to further respond to the current unit of work outside of RE lessons. Key vocabulary is displayed in each classroom and pupils regularly re-visit new words that have been introduced during a unit to support their understanding and retention.
Teachers will carry out regular assessments of achievement to further challenge and support pupils’ learning, ensuring pupils are able to access RE at a suitable level, whilst at the same time, providing appropriate challenge. These tasks may include pupil interviews to assess sticky learning, providing pupils with challenges such as deeper thinking questions for pupils to apply their knowledge. Pupil data is used by teachers and Subject leader to inform future develops for R.E.
Throughout RE, teachers will incorporate St Thomas’ Be Statements: Be Curious, Be Knowledgeable, Be Creative, Be Compassionate, Be Reflective, Be Courageous.
Impact - How we evaluate learning in Religious Education
By the time pupils leave St Thomas’, they will know how to be tolerant and responsible citizens through developing their understanding of differences in culture and belief, while seeing similarity in human families across the world. We create opportunities to respond to ideas of faith and practice and discuss what impact these may have on the wider world.
They will have an overview of many of the moral, social and cultural issues that are part of growing up in a diverse society. They will know about rights and responsibilities and will have been encouraged to develop their sense of self-worth by playing a positive role in contributing to school life and the wider community.
As a result of RE teaching at St Thomas’ we aim to enable pupils to:
- Talk with passion about their RE learning, showing that they enjoy and are inspired by their RE lessons
- Demonstrate an understanding of the school’s Christian Values, to know what these look like in practice, and to apply this understanding to help make everyday choice
- Feel able to talk openly about their beliefs and values in lessons, and to grow in their faith
- Talk with understanding about God’s Salvation Plan and develop a sense of chronology when talking about the Bible
- Develop a respect and understanding for the other major world religions and world views, allowing them to celebrate the diversity of our multicultural world
- Develop religious vocabulary enabling them to express their thoughts and beliefs as well as exploring the beliefs of others with respect
- Recognise Christianity as a multicultural world religion
- Develop their understanding of the idea of advocacy, to know how they can challenge injustice and how they can help to make the world a better place
- Reflect upon their own learning, identifying successes and aspects they would like to find out more about
- Progress appropriately in their knowledge and understanding of Christianity. In most cases this would be pupils working at or above the expected level for their age
- Mature spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to become well-rounded successful citizens in future life and have a positive impact on their friends, family, local and wider community.