RE is led by Mrs Rew

At Nursteed our aim is give children the knowledge and critical thinking skills with which to investigate the world of religion and beliefs. We aim to enable children to have open minded and respectful attitudes as they make their own decision about what this means to them, whilst empathising with what it means to those who hold those beliefs.

The RE Curriclum

RE is taught within classes. As a school we work together three times a year to engage in a Religious Education day. These occur with the themes of Diwali, Christmas and Easter.

Each year group learns about Christianity, with Christmas and Easter given fresh treatment every year, developing children’s learning in a progressive way. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are included and taught in different classes throughout the year.

Nursteed adopts an enquiry based approach to Discovery RE. With this approach we work together to develop children’s critical thinking skills, their motivation to learn, their knowledge and understanding of religions and their empathy with people and their beliefs. This is all underpinned by the philosophy that children are free to make their own choices and decisions concerning religion and beliefs.

The four steps are:

• Step 1: Engagement: the children’s own human experience is explored

to act as bridge from their world (which may or may not include

religion) into the world of the religion being studied.

• Step 2: Investigation: explore and investigate appropriate subject

knowledge relevant to that question of enquiry.

• Step 3: Evaluation: An assessment activity enables each child to show

their thinking and the depth of critical evaluation.

• Step 4: Expression: This refers the children back to the starting point

of their own experience and allows them to reflect on whether their

findings have influenced their own thinking.

SMSC in RE

Spiritual

Children begin each enquiry with their own experience and then returns to it. They are encouraged to reflect on their views in light of what they have learned.

Children are encouraged to consider aspects of the natural world in an exploration of Christian beliefs about Creation.

Children are encouraged to create their own responses to religious beliefs.

Moral

Children explore whether they think religious people lead better lives and think through what a ‘better’ life might look like

 Children explore environmental issues and the reasons why Christians believe humanity needs a ‘Saviour’.

Children are encouraged to Show interest in moral and ethical viewpoints and appreciate those of others.

Social

RE encourages active learning and gives many opportunities for group work across every year group as well as facilitating learning about religion and social issues.

Children consider how faith and beliefs motivate and impact on behaviour and if religious belief influences people to behave well towards others.

Children explore the idea that not all people of faith are the same, emphasising individual liberty and the consequences of personal choice

Cultural

Children are encouraged to find similarities and differences between their culture and those of others.

Children discuss the conflicts between religious and Government law.

They explore different faiths and show tolerance towards them in a local, global and national setting. RE includes enquiries across the principal world faiths. Enquiries include an Investigation into Persian New Year, pilgrimage to the River Ganges, the significance of the Hajj and the importance of The Golden Temple.