Boynton Primary School

Religion and Worldview Intent and Implementation

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Religious Education and Worldviews Curriculum Intent

At Boynton Primary School we follow the East Riding and Hull Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in accordance with the East Riding’s  ‘Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education’ (SACRE).

In accordance with the agreed syllabus, Religious Education at Boynton:

• Is open and objective. It does not seek to urge religious beliefs on young people, nor compromise the integrity of their own religious position by promoting one tradition over another.
• Endeavours to promote a positive attitude toward people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own.
• Promotes the values and attitudes necessary for citizenship in a multi-faith and multi-racial society through developing understanding of, respect for, and dialogue with people of different beliefs, practices, races and cultures.
• Recognises similarities and differences in commitment, self-understanding and the search for truth. Respecting and valuing these for the common good.
• Recognises and celebrates a range of culture and diversity through workshops, assemblies and shared experiences of staff, children and people from the local community.

The RE curriculum at Boynton is organised to support the development of children’s knowledge of religious and non-religious beliefs and worldviews, practices and ways of life and enable children to make links between these. 

Knowledge and skills are supported by first-hand experiences, including visits to local places of worship and visits from faith communities. Knowledge and skills are mapped to support children’s understanding of religion and faith. The RE curriculum is also designed to support positive attitudes and values, and encourage children to reflect and relate learning to their own experience. Children learn that there are those who do not hold religious beliefs and have their own philosophical perspectives, as part of its commitment to ensure mutual respect and understanding for those with different faiths.

The syllabus recommends that any themes or ‘Big Questions’ are explored by investigating and reflecting on the responses of more than one religion or belief system. All the units therefore include an exploration of these themes or big questions through different perspectives. Each unit encourages and promotes the contemplation of key concepts or themes within religions and comparing these with responses in other faiths, religions and belief systems.

The syllabus has been created in a cyclical format to enable children to revisit and build on prior knowledge of the different beliefs and practices taught across the school.

The curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils develop religious literacy through: (Sept 2022)

• Knowing about and understanding a range of religions and worldviews, learning to see these through the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and Social Sciences
• Expressing ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religion and worldviews through a multidisciplinary approach whilst engaging critically with them
• Gaining and deploying skills taken from the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and Social Sciences to enhance learning about religions and different worldviews

World views

The inclusion of worldviews enables young people to connect with religion(s) in a much more profound and inclusive way. A world views approach enables pupils to explore and gain ownership of their own perspectives, fitting new understanding into their existing mental framework. Pupils then learn about religion and beliefs through connecting and contrasting them with their own way of seeing the world.

At Boynton, we are committed to providing our children with an exciting and positive learning environment, in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions to support their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  We believe that worldviews should be taught in an inclusive environment which promotes discussion, develops empathy and a greater understanding of British Values within the society we live in.

Implementation

Coverage, following the agreed syllabus, is planned to link with key dates and religious festivals to provide opportunities to celebrate festivals and religions with greater consistency and contextual relevance. Work is recorded in RE books and is evidenced with a variety of outcomes, including written pieces, artwork and photographs.

As children progress through the programme of study, they are able to look deeper into spiritual, ethical, moral and social issues and with increasing breadth across different religions and worldviews through time and around the world.

Three mutually supportive disciplines have been identified (lenses) which help pupils to see Religious Education and world views form different perspectives, giving a balanced approach to teaching and learning. These lenses are:

Learning is planned and sequenced to support pupils in building an ever-increasing picture over time, constantly building their knowledge and understanding of key subject knowledge and specialist vocabulary around concepts. This ensures that the investigation, exploration and reflection of their own and others’ responses to ‘Big Questions’ can continuously increase in depth, breadth and complexity.

As pupils move through the Religious Education curriculum these ‘Big Questions’ increase in complexity, depth and breadth, the expectations of pupils to explain ‘what’ the beliefs, practices and values are and the relationships between them, as well as explaining ‘why’ these are important and may make a difference to people, and ‘how’ they relate, change or impact on a wider world view also increases.

Rationale for sequencing and coverage in Religious Education and Worldviews

At all key stages, more time should be spent on Christianity than on any other individual religion or worldview ‘to reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian’ (Education Act 1988). Therefore, Christianity is taught as one of the principal religions in KS1, lower KS2 and upper KS2.  The curriculum is then structured with the studies of Islam, Buddhism and Humanists.

The religions chosen have been selected to give our pupils depth in knowledge in a range of contrasting religions and world views, practices and ways of life and enable children to make links between these. It also develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the different members of our rich and diverse community.

We teach Religion and Worldviews for an hour a week; this may be taught discretely or linked to other subjects such as PSHCE. Topic days linked to the school’s values of ‘Understanding Other Cultures’ enhance their learning of RE. The school also has strong links with the local church and the whole school celebrates festivals such as Harvest, Christingle, Christmas and Easter with the local church and community.

There are no presumptions made as to the religious backgrounds and beliefs and values of the children and the staff.  We value the religious background of all members of the school community and hope that this will encourage individuals to share their own experiences with others freely.  All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value links between home, school and a faith community.  We promote teaching in Religion and Worldviews that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children.