Religious Education (R.E.)

What is the nature and purpose of the subject of RE?

We Understand, Respect, Value

Intent

At Swaffield, our relevant and creative Religious Education curriculum aims to encourage children to learn both ABOUT the major world religions and to learn FROM the concept of faith and belief by engaging pupils in enquiry led exploration.

Lessons aim to provide children with an understanding and knowledge that will prepare them to be caring, open-minded members of our multicultural society and the diverse community in which they live. To promote their personal, spiritual, societal and cultural development, we actively promote diversity and offer a welcoming and inclusive environment for all children.

Our goal is to develop the children’s understanding of religious and cultural diversity so that they are able to understand, respect and value multiple faiths. The religions and worldviews covered by our curriculum include: Aleve, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Islam, Jain, Judaism, Shinto, Sikh, Zoroastrian.

Understand

All children need to acquire core knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and practices of a range of religions and worldviews (and the diversity which exists within them) which not only shape history and culture but which guide their own development.
The study of religion and worldviews contributes dynamically to the education of Swaffield pupils by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God and ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. In RE children learn about and from religions and worldviews, in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these big questions. They learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from
different sources, to develop and express their insights in response and
to agree or disagree respectfully.

Respect

The modern world needs young people who are sufficiently confident in their own beliefs and values that they can respect the religious and cultural differences of others, contributing to a cohesive and compassionate society. In particular, the RE curriculum embodies the fundamental British values of freedom and individual liberty, democracy and respect for the rule of law, responsibility and fairness and respect and tolerance of the beliefs of others.

Value

School structures are becoming increasingly diverse in England. It is important that within this diversity, Swaffield’s RE curriculum gives our pupils the opportunity to gain an informed understanding of a variety of religious beliefs and worldviews, including the similarities and differences within faiths. We encourage children to engage in enquiry based learning in order to find out what knowledge they can gain from different religions, even if it may not be the same as their own. We encourage children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts, asking big questions such as: Why are we here? What is religion? Why do worldviews change? How can worldviews be expressed? How do worldviews affect our daily lives? How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?

Implementation

Each unit of work in the Kapow scheme of work for Religious Education incorporates the following three significant areas of learning –

Building substantive knowledge (understanding key religious concepts including beliefs & practices, wisdom & morality, community & belonging).
Considering personal knowledge (of the individual’s own values, beliefs and experiences and their own ideas about life’s value and purpose).
Developing disciplinary skills (using a variety of methods to make sense of the worldviews studies e.g. observing religious practices, reading case studies, interpreting data, analysing texts and exploring historical artefacts).

It is a spiral curriculum approach where learning is revisited and previous skills and knowledge are built upon with increasing complexity as the children progress through the school. Each unit of study is structured around a thought provoking questions e.g. what is a prophet? Is scripture central to religion? What happens when we die?

Assembly themes and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural events:

Impact

We monitor the impact of our Religious Education curriculum through ongoing assessment within lessons and also through end of unit ‘knowledge catcher’ investigations where children consider the vocabulary and knowledge they have gained.

The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment. After the implementation of the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum, pupils will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way. They will be curious learners who ask questions and make connections, confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.

The school follows Wandsworth’s Locally Agreed Syllabus and uses the Kapow Scheme of Work to teach RE.

Visit our Curriculum page which gives details of Swaffield's 2024/2025 curriculum for each year group.

Curriculum Overview for Parents

Requests to withdraw a pupil from RE lessons

Parents have the statutory right under Section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to request their child/ren are wholly or partly excused from:
RE lessons in accordance with the schools’ basic curriculum
Acts of Collective Worship in schools

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