Water Mill Primary School

Religious Education

INTENT

At Water Mill it is our intent for all of our pupils to be aware and tolerant of religions that we come across within a diverse community. We prepare our pupils to be proud, creative and independent learners in order to develop their understanding and to ask questions about different religions, cultures and traditions. We want all of our pupils to develop their understanding and to be able to imbed Christian values alongside British values to their everyday life. We expect the children to build on their knowledge and skills and show a progression of understanding about different religions as they complete their journey throughout school.

At Water Mill Primary School, we aim to develop the pupils understanding and skills so that they:

• Learn, imbed and reflect core Christian values
• Are engaged and develop an understanding and interest of religions
• Gain tolerance and respect towards religions, cultures and traditions
• Develop a religious vocabulary
• Gain confidence to ask and answer questions regarding religions

IMPLEMENTATION

At Water Mill religious education is taught following the Birmingham agreed syllabus. This breaks down the syllabus and guides the teaching by twenty-four main dispositions which all major faiths consider important. This plan is based mostly around the Christian faith but allows for links to all other major faiths. These dispositions are linked to a person’s spiritual and moral character and are used to help depict a human ideal. Alongside following the syllabus, each year group will spend a term focusing solely on one religion in more depth leading to children covering all religions in depth when they have completed their primary school journey.

 

Religious education is an important part of school and class assemblies and is used to address specific celebrations or traditions that are relevant throughout the year. It is important that at Water Mill we are celebrating a variety of cultures and religions in order for children to feel valued and respected. This also embeds knowledge and understanding further.

Religious education builds upon skills and knowledge that the pupils are learning about in PSHEC/RSE and can be built upon further when linking the concepts and values together. It is important that the children are immersed with religions and values and they are able to access displays, resources and artefacts linking to their learning.

Religious education is taught through discussion, debate, drama, role play and ‘circle time’ activities. Religious education can also involve writing activities which may be covered through an English writing or reading lesson.

Water Mill allows for children to develop a hands on experience of different religions providing them with opportunities to visit different places of worship and for religious leaders to visit school and discuss different faiths.

 

KEY CONCEPTS

At Water Mill we have agreed the following areas to be the key concepts that will be taught through this area of the curriculum:

 

These concepts will be embedded throughout the children’s journey at Water Mill school and the children will build upon their skills and knowledge in each area at different times during each school year.

IMPACT

At Water Mill religious education helps all pupils to develop their understanding of equality and diversity allowing them to feel knowledgeable about different beliefs, religions and cultures. This in turn develops our pupils to:

• Become engaged and excited about Religious Education.
• Reflect and think about their own beliefs and gain confidence to ask questions about others.
• Reflect upon and evaluate their own learning and understanding effectively.
• Show respect to individual’s beliefs and religions within a diverse community and value the skills and knowledge they gain from this.

The skills and knowledge they gain through this programme help them to learn in all areas of the curriculum and ensure that our very diverse community is respectful, safe, happy and caring.

For further information about our Religious Education curriculum click on the links below:

To see the full content of the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education click on the link below: