Religious Education

Curriculum Intent

Our curriculum at South Borough seeks to create an environment of curiosity and tolerance around Religious Education in line with British Values. At South Borough we will celebrate diversity from a place of mutual respect and seek to develop children's moral, social and spiritual understanding and well being. We will encourage children to ask questions and investigate a range of practices to compare and contrast as they begin to understand and develop their own philosophical perspectives on life and the world around them.

Curriculum Implementation

At South Borough Primary School, Religious Education is taught through an inquiry based approach, using age suitable and recommended questions recommended to each key stage in the Kent agreed syllabus. RE is taught for a day each term. Across the curriculum we cover a range of religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. The curriculum supports spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, as well as British Values, and promotes critical thinking skills leading to personal development.

Throughout all year groups pupils will focus on questions across three areas: believing, expressing and living. Questions in the ‘believing’ category focus on children gaining knowledge of different practices and beliefs. Using an inquiry based approach they will be able to investigate different religions, enabling them to identify, describe and explain different religious beliefs. With ‘expressing’, pupils begin to explore how religion can be expressed and begin to tap into how they might express their own spirituality, religion, morals and beliefs. In the ‘living’ category, pupils will focus on practices and ways of living - other aspects that might contribute or influence the way someone practises their religion e.g. What does it mean to be a Hindu in Britain today? Starting with questions that focus on gaining knowledge of religion will give pupils a better understanding and the ability to reliably contemplate the later questions on ‘expressing’ and ‘living’.

We keep a record of children’s achievements using Year Group big books, where photographs of creative activities and written work are presented. We will also monitor children’s engagement using Quizizz and assess where there are gaps in knowledge or areas to revisit. Children’s work is assessed by the class teacher who will ask open-ended questions and observe children’s work carefully so that RE days can be adapted and enhanced to reflect the needs of the class and school community as a whole.