Intent

Our Marsh Green Primary School Religious Education (RE) curriculum follows the Barking and Dagenham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. RE is taught discretely to deepen the understanding of religions where we can learn from or learn about certain people, places, religious books and artefacts.

Our RE curriculum is designed to engage and enthuse all children, regardless of their personal beliefs and practices, in order to ensure that they are well prepared for life in a world where there are a multitude of viewpoints. 

At Marsh Green Primary School, we aim to ensure that children are able to express themselves by understanding different religious cultures and messages in stories as well as understanding specific vocabulary related to a particular religion. Through this, children know about and develop an understanding of a range of religions to ensure they can describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals.

Our RE curriculum also aims to enable children to express ideas and gain insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews to enable them to express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value including ethical issues. It is our intention for children to make their own informed decisions and to have the confidence to voice their views about a range of topics and issues including: meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. 

Our RE curriculum is also about belonging. It aims to nurture children’s awareness and understanding of world faiths and other beliefs by exploring the commonality and diversity of these faiths and other beliefs, in a way that provides children both depth and breadth of study. We all share a common humanity and we ensure that children have an opportunity to share their view of the world together with building an appreciation and understanding of others’ views.

We also want children to enjoy RE and to develop thoughtful and resilient responses to misunderstandings, stereotyping and division. We want to offer the children a place where difficult or risky questions can be tackled within a safe but challenging context. 

In addition, it is our intention to provide children with religious literacy, where they will develop their knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other religious traditions and world views and explore their responses to life's challenges. This equips children with the knowledge and skills to flourish in their future adult lives, both within their own community and as members of a diverse and global society.

Implementation

Our curriculum follows the Barking and Dagenham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. 

The RE curriculum is planned and sequenced to develop deep, lasting learning and builds upon prior knowledge, which our children can use today, tomorrow and for the rest of their lives.

During each Key Stage, pupils are taught knowledge, skills and understanding through learning about world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism. Each unit of work identifies prior learning and shows how this is built upon. 

RE is taught in a block unit within a term to allow suitable links to be made to specific religious festivals taking place or to link in with other topics being taught.  Children gain a deeper understanding of the religion studied through the use of high-quality resources and artefacts.

The following skills are used, in order to strengthen the skills and deepen the understanding and knowledge taught: investigating, reflecting, recalling and retelling, exploring, discussing and empathising.  Children can discuss and compare the lives of people they have studied from a variety of different religions.

Attitudes which are fundamental to RE and, which we foster within children, include: curiosity and wonder, commitment, fairness, respect, self- understanding, open-mindedness, critical mindedness and enquiry. These work alongside the SMSC links and British Values implemented within school as a whole.

Assemblies take place across the whole school. These are delivered by senior leaders, class teachers and guest speakers.  

Visits to places of worship provide a variety of first-hand experiences for our children, to spark their interest and relate new learning to their own experience.