Religious Education Curriculum Intent
At Dean Field Primary School, we believe that it is important for our pupils to learn and explore faiths and beliefs so that they understand the world around them. We provide them with opportunities to develop critical and reflective skills to support them in discovering their own journey of purpose and meaning.
Our RE curriculum is designed to address the lack of knowledge and understanding of diversity in our local community and we strongly believe that it has the potential to contribute towards the community cohesion in our local area and, ultimately, shape the society for a better future. We want our children to appreciate diversity so that they can respect communities beyond their own.
As we are living in a world where young people are exposed to many conflicting and persuasive ideas, we deliver our RE curriculum with the intention of helping students address and challenge issues by giving them the tools to analyse and question issues for themselves and develop their confidence to articulate their own point of view.
Our whole school RE overview is based on key questions and pupils are taught to critically think about answers and solutions which enhances their understanding of the world as well as cultivating mutual respect and tolerance for others. There is clear progression from EYFS to year 6 so that when pupils leave Dean Field they have a breadth of knowledge on religious education preparing them for the real world.
Religious Education Syllabus Aims
Our vision for RE is based on the Calderdale and Kirklees agreed syllabus: Believing and Belonging 2024 – 2029. Our world is enriched by a wide and profound diversity of cultures and beliefs. Human beings are strengthened and empowered by learning from each other. Engaging and stimulating RE helps to nurture informed and resilient responses to misunderstanding, stereotyping and division. It offers a place of integrity and security within which difficult or ‘risky’ questions can be tackled within a safe but challenging context. Religious education contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
In RE pupils 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.
Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and other world views, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities. It should develop in pupils an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in society with its diverse understanding of life from religious and other world views.
Pupils should gain and deploy the skills needed to understand, interpret and evaluate texts, sources of wisdom and authority and other evidence. They learn to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences while respecting the right of others to differ.
The syllabus has three aims for pupils:
- Investigate the beliefs and practices of religions and other world views;
- Investigate how religions and other world views address questions of meaning, purpose & value;
- Investigate how religions and other world views influence morality, identity and diversity.
Through our teaching of the RE syllabus we aim to:
- Develop an awareness of spiritual and moral issues in life experiences;
- Develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other major world religions and value systems found in Britain;
- Develop an understanding of what it means to be committed to a religious tradition;
- Be able to reflect on their own experiences and to develop a personal response to the fundamental questions of life;
- Develop an understanding of religious traditions and to appreciate the cultural differences in Britain today;
- Develop investigative and research skills and to enable them to make reasoned judgements about religious issues;
- Have respect for other peoples’ views and to celebrate the diversity in society.
RE