‘We love God's world, we care for God's World, we are His stewards’. 

Genesis 1:31 

Inspired by learning in beautiful surroundings of God’s creation, we have become a school community that flourishes in learning and life. At St Mark's, we are a small, close-knit community who love and care for each other, echoing God’s love and care for us (Genesis 1). We are part of His world and Genesis tells us we are made in His image; all of us are important. Through knowing and nurturing each and every one of our school family, every voice at St Marks’ is heard and valued, allowing every individual to be the best they can be. Our children both aspire to be, and embrace the honour of being, God’s stewards throughout their broad, rich learning journey at St Mark’s, and as they go out into the world as global citizens to be God’s stewards of the future. 

Intent

In order to teach RE we follow the Kent syllabus incorporating ‘Understanding Christianity’ and the Diocesan units for other faiths. This ensures a progression of knowledge and skills as children move through the primary phase. An emphasis is placed on enquiry led learning in order to develop the whole child’s ability to make connections on their own lives.

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.

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

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.

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. 

St Mark's are very pleased to welcome The Family Trust to support us in delivering worship to the whole school. 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), and Reverend Ruth Peet's visits to worship with us at St Mark's. 

Our year 6 students share the role of 'Worship Leaders' throughout their final year at school, helping deliver workship to the while school whilst also acting as role models for our values of respectfulness and stewardship.

Spirituality

At St Mark’s school, pupils and their families can expect a high-quality Religious Education curriculum that is rich and varied, where pupils are valued; where they feel happy and secure; where they learn and grow in their faith. Within our Christian environment, we enable all to flourish and grow as individuals, developing their personal skills and abilities, characters, talents, spirituality and faith. 

A key part of that belief is to nurture children’s spiritual awareness and to develop each child’s character. We believe that spiritual development relates to fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life which affect everyone; it is not dependent on a religious affiliation.   

Religious education should enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. (John 10:10).  

What is Spirituality? 

 Spirituality is a person’s relationship with themselves, with others, with God (or the transcendent), and with nature and the environment. These four elements: self; others; transcendence and beauty form the basis of our work with children in developing a strong sense of spirituality. 

The four elements - what these consist of: 

 Self 

Awareness of feelings; ability to reflect and express 

Awareness of uniqueness; happiness with who we are 

Gratitude for all that we have and the person we are 

Exploration of personal faith 

Development of creativity and imagination 

 Others 

Empathy and understanding; respect, tolerance 

To love their neighbour (to love and be loved) 

To make a difference 

Transcendence 

Encountering/experiencing God (a sense of what lies beyond the material/physical) 

Ability to formulate and discuss the ‘Big Questions’ (e.g. about life, death, suffering and nature of God) 

Opportunities for prayer, connecting with God 

Making sense of the world around us 

Beauty 

Developing a sense of awe and wonder 

Enjoying the miracles of everyday life 

Taking time for what really matters 

Appreciating beauty in art, music and nature 

Spirituality is the heart beat of St Mark’s. It is how we understand ourselves and our place in the world: recognising strengths, weaknesses and having confidence to challenge ourselves. We care for the local and global community and our Christian values underpin our learning and encourage children to ask ‘big questions’. This approach enables pupils to consider the ‘ow’ and ‘wow’ factors of life and to celebrate achievements.  

Why is Spiritual Development important? 

At St Mark’s Church of England school, we believe children live up to their potential if they are happy, have fun, feel nurtured and grow from a foundation of strong Christian Values.  

We value spirituality and the holistic development of the child. Our role of educators is to guide the children in our care along the path of life. As children grow in their understanding of spirituality and values, they become secure enough to make mistakes and therefore move on with their spiritual learning and academic growth.  

 How we aim to develop a strong sense of spirituality  

Allocate a regular time in the day for quiet reflection. This may be listening to a story, lighting a candle in worship, sitting in our beautiful school grounds.  

Provide many opportunities for creativity and using the imagination.  

Valuing play opportunities.  

Sing often, especially with others.  

Ensuring regular time for prayer in our collective worship and in individual classes. This can take many forms, but should include being thankful, and saying sorry. Allow children the opportunity to open themselves to God.  

Provide frequent opportunities for children to explore, express and share feelings. Constantly reaffirm the importance of relationships.  

Provide opportunities to express awe and wonder ('wow' moments), appreciate beauty in all its forms, and appreciate the connections in the world.  

Encourage each other to admit mistakes and to say sorry through restorative conversations. Recognising and owning up to faults is an important healing and redemptive process. Forgiveness is at the heart of our Behaviour Policy.  

Encourage children to show kindness, care and compassion, and to express these in practical ways. (e.g. how we treat each other every day).

Explore the ‘Big Questions’ – particularly through our R.E. and Worship curriculum.

Read from the Bible and other texts often to children, and give them opportunities to discuss and reflect.