Religious Education (RE)

Intent

As a Church of England Academy the teaching and learning of RE is as important to us as that of English and Maths.  Below is our Vision Statement for the subject which shows our aims and approach to RE in the school.

Our curriculum is organised as a progression which facilitates the re-visiting of learning through recurrent themes, such that knowledge, understanding and skills become embedded in children’s long term memory.  For details of this see the documents below ‘Keevil CofE Academy RE Knowledge Progression’ and ‘Keevil CofE Academy RE Skills Progression’.

Throughout RE learning the children have the opportunity to explore and deepen their core Keevil characteristics, embedding their teaching and learning in the subject within our school vision and ethos. Children are exposed to a wide range of world faiths and through this learning they learn to appreciate and respect the values of other people.  Children have the opportunity to develop their communication through expressing their own thoughts, beliefs and opinion. They have to show team work when allowing everyone’s thoughts and opinions to be acknowledged through working as part of a team. Children develop their resilience through their belief and trust in God and understanding that they do not always know his plan or intentions but to be resilient when things don’t work out the first time. They develop their problem solving skills through finding possible answers to the unknown big questions that surround RE and through accepting that there is more than one right answer. Finally the children have the opportunity to further their diligence by producing work to the best of their ability considering the core values important to them.

Implementation

We consider RE to be a core subject, and as such a unit of work is delivered in the subject each term and in each class.  These weekly lessons are supplemented with whole school journey days which ensures that our provision exceeds 5% or curriculum time and approaches the target of 10%.All lessons follow our school’s Teaching and Learning non-negotiables, and as a core subject we also have specific expectations for RE lessons to ensure a high standard of provision.  The ‘Keevil CofE Academy RE Curriculum Overview’ below, shows how the units of work in the subject are mapped across our 2 year curriculum cycle.

At Keevil Academy we follow the Understanding Christianity scheme of work, and from September 2024 this will be supplemented by units of work from the RE Today scheme in all the classes (previously the Discovery RE scheme was used). This ensures that the main focus of our RE teaching and learning delivers a depth of understanding of Christianity. All staff encourage and promote Christian values in all areas of learning, not just during RE lessons.

In RE at Keevil Academy we also learn about other religions:

In Foundation Stage we begin by experiencing a variety of multi-faith celebrations at the children's level (this may be through dance, music, drama and art.)

In Key Stage 1 we begin to understand the main features of Jewish and Muslim life and worship and the differences and similarities between these worldviews and Christianity.

In Key Stage 2 we look in more depth at Christianity, and continue to learn about Islam and Judaism.  We also introduce the study of Hinduism and a non-religious worldview, Humanism.

Throughout the school we invite visitors from other faith groups to come and work with the children.  Also, where possible, we take the children to visit different places of worship.

At Keevil Academy our academic year rotates around Christian services in St. Leonard’s Church (located at the top of our lane). We celebrate Harvest, Christmas, Easter and other special events such as Parent Assemblies in Church. Foundation Stage and Year 1 & 2 take part in an annual Nativity performance staged in the church also.

Impact

Through the delivery of our curriculum children are enabled to develop religious knowledge and understanding, appropriate to their age and as specified in our curriculum.  They develop a religious literacy that means that they understand and respect the beliefs and practices of Christians and members of other major world faiths, as well as the skills to explore, analyse and think critically about these from a standpoint of tolerance and understanding.  Children are also encouraged to reflect and develop their own belief system and nurture their spirituality.