Religious Education

INTENT - Why do we teach this? Why do we teach it in the way we do?

At Hill Top CE Primary School, the aim of Religious Education is to help children:

  • to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in our home city of Bradford;
  • to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and our behaviour;
  • to develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues;
  • enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. 

Religious Education is taught throughout the school in such a way as to reflect the overall aims, values, and philosophy of the school. At Hill Top CE Primary School, Religious Education plays an important role in promoting the spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development of our children.

IMPLEMENTATION - What do we teach? What does this look like?

At Hill Top, and as a Church of England Primary School, we make significant use of the resource ‘Understanding Christianity’ to support pupils in developing their understanding of Christianity and as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it.

Units in the school’s scheme also pay heed to the Bradford Agreed Syllabus and we ensure that the key religions of Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism are also taught.

 

  • Early Years: cover the concepts of Creation, Incarnation and Salvation and explore religious stories in Christianity and other world faiths
  • Year 1: cover the concepts of God, Incarnation, Gospel and Salvation and spend two units looking at Islam and Hinduism through the topics of ‘Special Things’ and ‘Special Days’.
  • Year 2: cover the concepts of Creation, Incarnation, Gospel and Salvation and spend two units looking at Islam and Hinduism through the topics of ‘Special Places’ and ‘Special People’.
  • Year 3: cover the concepts of People of God, Incarnation, Salvation and Kingdom of God and spend two units looking at Sikhism and Judaism through the topics of ‘Journeys’ and ‘Places of Worship’.
  • Year 4: cover the concepts of Creation, Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation and spend two units looking at Sikhism and Judaism through the topics of ‘Special Books’ and ‘Creation and the Environment’.
  • Year 5: cover the concepts of God, Incarnation, People of God, Salvation and spend two units looking at Islam and Buddhism through the topics of ‘Sacred Writing’ and ‘Symbols and Symbolism’.
  • Year 6: cover the concepts of Creation, Gospel, Salvation and Kingdom of God and spend two units looking at Islam and Buddhism through the topics of ‘Special People’ and ‘Initiation Rites’.

 

Children are able to express personal beliefs and experience RE through a variety of learning opportunities, such as listening to teachers and visitors, reading a variety of texts, researching using different sources of information, discussing with partners and small groups, and visiting religious places. Our teaching and learning styles in RE enable children to build on their own experiences and extend knowledge and understanding of religious traditions. Visits to local places of worship and visitors of local religious groups are a key feature of our RE offer.

IMPACT - What do we want to happen?

The children at Hill Top CE Primary enjoying learning lots about other religions and why people choose, or choose not to follow a religion. Through their R.E. learning, the children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world. R.E. acts as a hub, therefore, between social aspects of learning, science and geography. Through R.E. our children are developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life, which they are then able to communicate to the wider community.

R.E. offers our children the means by which to understand how other people choose to live and to understand why they choose to live in that way. As such, R.E. is invaluable in an ever changing and shrinking world.