Maynards Green Community Primary School

Intent

Religious Education (RE) enables children to investigate and reflect on some of the most fundamental questions asked by people. It concerns the whole child – body, mind and spirit and enables children to explore meaning and purpose in their lives.
RE at Maynards Green explores big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live. RE helps pupils to make sense of religion and belief reflecting on their own ideas and way of living. We want our children to become confident in sharing their own beliefs and values as well as being respectful of others.

Implementation

At Maynards Green school we follow the Agreed syllabus for RE in East Sussex ‘Faith and Belief in the 21st Century’. The RE lessons are taught to build on previous knowledge as well as giving all children the opportunity to reflect on their own values and beliefs. Children are encouraged to think about the big questions in life and use their own understanding of religion and beliefs to help answer some
of these big ideas.

In RE lessons, Children have the opportunity to focus on many religions with our children in Key Stage 1 mainly focusing on Christianity, Judaism and Islam. This learning is then extended in Key Stage 2 with the introduction of Hinduism. All children have the opportunity to consider the views of non-religious worldviews too. The children will use art, music and drama to support with their RE learning.

We welcome members of different religious groups into school to share their beliefs and practices and also visit the local church to gain a better insight into Christian worship. We aim to give all children first hand experiences to explore the beliefs and traditions of others in the local and wider community.

Impact
As a result of RE teaching at Maynards Green school we aim to enable pupils to:

• Many children will achieve – and many will exceed – age related expectations, reaching their individual potential in RE at the end of their cohort year.
• Gain an understanding of the major world religions, including non-religious views, and to be considerate to how these beliefs impact on others daily lives.
• Children will demonstrate a level of respect and appreciation for other religious traditions that may differ from their own.
• Many children will have the confidence to question any prejudices on grounds of religion and strive for a more inclusive community, locally and globally.