RE
At St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, we study RE to enrich the quality of children’s lives so that they can become global citizens with the confidence and vocabulary to interact with people from different cultures and backgrounds. In our school, we want children to flourish and know they are loved, cared for and valued. As a Christian school, our faith and Christian Values are central to all we do. The teaching of Christianity is at the heart of our RE curriculum which ensures pupils have endless opportunities to look beyond themselves, ask ‘big questions’ and think globally about life and develop an understanding of the world. . The school’s vision, values and ethos are all reflected in RE planning to ensure that we treat everyone in the community with love and respect. We make sure that our teaching of the importance of Christian Values is firmly rooted in the teachings of The Bible.
Intent - What and why do the children learn?
Our aim at St Mark's is for children to be religiously literate: to be able to hold a balanced and informed conversation about religion and belief.
We aim to balance learning the substantive knowledge (what different religions and worldviews are about) and the disciplinary knowledge (our ways of knowing through theology, human and social sciences and philosophy). These Golden Threads help provide a way of making links across different faiths and worldviews, whilst also acknowledging the multi disciplinary nature of RE.
We also want the children to learn that people are at the heart of RE and so we follow a people-centred approach learning about individuals who follow different faiths, case studies and meet people of faith (either in school or in their own place of worship). We strongly believe that 'everyone has a worldview' and we want the children to use idea to deepen their learning, thinking and questioning to stimulate conversation and encourage pupils to think through their own worldview and how this impacts their lives.
Following our legal requirement:
kent locally agreed syllabus.pdf
Following the statement of best practice:
re statement of entitlement for church schools.pdf
Implementation - How do we teach it?
In order to teach RE we follow the Kent syllabus incorporating ‘Understanding Christianity’ and the Diocesan units for other faiths. We are also members of NATRE (National Association of Teachers of Religious Education) through which we can access RE Today's Primary RE Curriculum. This ensures a progression of knowledge and skills as children move through the primary phase. Furthermore, in KS2 we ensure our mixed classes are split into individual year groups for RE. An emphasis is placed on enquiry led learning in order to develop the whole child’s ability to make connections to their own lives. Our aim is for children to be able to hold a balanced and informed conversation about religion and belief.
Following the Diocesan advice and guidance (which aligns with Understanding Christianity):
re long term overview sept 23 324730725.pdf
We use the National Curriculum and our self-developed ‘Pilgrim Progress’ assessment procedures provide support for staff and pupils to monitor their progress against the gaining of key skills and knowledge. We always start our learning with the 'review' stage which establishes an individual child's starting point.
Through the Understanding Christianity resource, the use of an enquiry approach engages with significant theological concepts and the pupil’s own understanding of the world as part of their wider religious literacy. Using the Kent Agreed Syllabus we learn about other religions and world views, fostering respect for them. Links with our Christian values and vision, and support for pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development are intrinsic to our RE curriculum and have a significant impact on learners.
Adaptive teaching
When pupils have additional needs, we work to enable each child to overcome learning barriers through our adaptive teaching and so help create a pathway to success. RE is a subject which celebrates diversity and allows for fruitful dicussions about issues such as equality, human rights, justice and individuality. As such, the idea of inclusivity is at the heart of our teaching, not only affirming learners with special needs, but all learners. Much of our learning is discussion-based which enables learners with SEND to flourish, but we also adapt our teaching in many ways, including:
- using different versions of the Bible, paper and online - to make the language more accessible
- using word banks
- including visuals / symbols alongside more complicated terminology
- using sentence starters
- chunking larger pieces of text into smaller pieces
- using hot seating and role play
- through use of music, artefacts and artwork
- through video clips such as cartoons of Bible stories, first-hand accounts of people who follow different religions or virtual tours of religious buildings
- visits from religious leaders
- visits to places of worship
Impact - How does it benefit our children?
The impact of the school's religious teaching occurs both formally and informally. The children's religious learning journey shines through discussions in class and worship and is also evident in their written work. Assessment is based on our Pilgrim Progress, which is shared and adapted (as appropriate) across our Multi Academy Trust. Primarily, we use our start and end of unit reviews as a way to ascertain the progress children have made and what they have learned. However, we also assess via:
- ongoing formative assessment in lessons
- marking of well-designed tasks
- vocabulary checks and retrieval activities
- exit tickets
- quizzes - online or otherwise
- hinge questions such as '3 heads'
- reflection questions - window, mirror and door
- written activites
- diamond nine or other ranking/prioritising task
- classroom discussions / oracy
Enrichment Opportunities
Where possible, we invite people of faith into school or visit people in their place of worship. Recent events include a visit to the Guru Nank Darbar Gurdwara in Gravesend, walking visits to The Church in Eccles (Methodist) and a Humanism speaker in school.
At St Mark's Church of England primary school we are keen to promote service to others in our community for those less fortunate than ourselves. We encourage the pupils in our school to think and care about others. We have a link with The Brassey Centre Food Bank who we recently supported at Harvest and Christmas time. Recently, we have held fundraising and awareness days for the following charities close to our hearts: The Leprosy Mission, Diabetes UK and Epilipesy Awareness.
St Mark's are very pleased to welcome The Family Trust to support us in delivering worship to the whole school. Our village church is The Church at Eccles (Methodist) and Rev'd Naomi has welcomed us at the church, visited us at St Mark's and led worships for us - these are always very much enjoyed. We also have a special relationship with St Peter and St Paul's Church, Aylesford and enjoy our visits there (such as our whole school Christmas service).
We have just received our 3-years of Picture News badge and we use their resources to help enhance RE learning, worships and spirituality conversations.
Our year 6 students share the role of 'Worship Leaders' throughout their final year at school, helping deliver worship to the while school whilst also acting as role models for our values of respectfulness, stewardship and thankfulness.
Useful Resources
Books
Here are some recommended reads you may like to try:
