Religious Education at Old Sarum Primary
Vision:
That children respect and appreciate the different world religions and faiths that this encourages deep questioning, critical thinking and evaluation skills which help support spiritual development and helps to celebrate diversity. Religion and worldviews curriculum aims to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. Our R&W curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through the scheme, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views.
Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in our progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning. By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldviews.
How it is taught and why
At Old Sarum we teach Religious Education weekly and from the starting point of a key concept and our curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts and by answering ‘big questions’ using an enquiry based approach.
These ‘big questions’ are:
- Why are we here?
- Why do worldviews change?
- What is religion?
- How can worldviews be expressed?
- How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
- How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?
Our aim is that all children will
- Know and understand religious concepts relating to beliefs, practices, community and belonging, and wisdom and guidance.
- Develop an understanding of the influence of organised and personal worldviews on individuals, communities, countries and globally.
- Understand some of the ways religions and worldviews are studied (disciplinary knowledge).
- Develop understanding of their relationship with the content studied, being able to talk about their assumptions and preconceptions (personal knowledge).
- Build secure vocabulary which allows them to talk confidently and fluently about their learning.
- Answer questions about worldviews through an enquiry-based approach including investigating, interpreting, evaluating, applying and expressing.
- Talk about the similarities and differences between their own and others’ beliefs with respect and open mindedness.
- Understand the lived experiences of religious and non-religious worldviews to be diverse within and between people and communities.
- Develop an understanding of the ways in which personal and organised worldviews may develop and change across time and place.
Assessment
The impact 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. Pupil voice is also used as an assessment tool.