Welcome to the R.E Page

Religious Education is taught within the Humanities area of study.

Intent

• To provide rich and varied contexts for pupils to acquire, develop and apply a broad range of knowledge, understanding and skills.
• To promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
• To enable pupils to challenge stereotypes and discrimination.
• Prepare pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.
• Help pupils develop principles for distinguishing between right and wrong.

Implementation

• Learning about religion – covers pupils’ knowledge and understanding of individual religions and how they relate to each other. It includes enquiry into the nature of religion, its beliefs, teachings and ways of life. It includes the skills of interpretation, analysis and explanation.
• Learning from religion – develops pupils’ reflection on and response to their own and others’ experiences. Pupils learn to develop and communicate their own ideas, particularly about identity, belonging, meaning, purpose, truth and commitment.
• Christianity is studied throughout each Key Stage. The other principle religions represented in Great Britain of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhism are the focus of a progressed study between  KS1 and KS3. In KS4, RE is taught through the ASDAN award and pupils work through challenges to gain credits. 

Impact

To develop the following values which are part of making a good and decent human being. 

• Self-awareness
• Respect for all
• Open-mindedness
• Appreciation and wonder

Jigsaw RE 

At Applebee Wood Community Specialist School we follow the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus using Jigsaw RE. 

Jigsaw RE is an enquiry-based scheme of work, covering the principal world faiths and humanism in a progressive way from Year 1 to Year 9. In the early years, the learning is closely matched to Development Matters to contribute meaningfully to your child’s holistic development. Throughout all the enquiries, the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural education is carefully considered.

Each enquiry lasts for half a term and begins with a “big” question such as “What is the best way for a Christian/Jew/Muslim etc. to show commitment to God?” The children then start discussing the theme of the enquiry (in this case, commitment) from their own experience. What have they shown commitment to? Brownies? Cubs? Their sporting team? Playing an instrument?

Only when the children fully understand the concept they are considering, do they then move on to investigating what the people following the studied religion or worldview believe about it. They will spend approximately 3 lessons on this, learning in a variety of ways, so they can adapt their responses and come to a measured conclusion. In week 5 they will complete an activity which can assess their learning, by answering their “big” question. The assessment activities are child friendly and can be answered in a variety of ways, as long as the child can justify their view with the knowledge they have gained throughout the enquiry. This demonstrates the level of critical thinking that the children can apply – a valuable skill for them throughout the school curriculum.

The final week in every enquiry gives the children time to reflect on what they have learnt about the concept and apply to it their own lives, thus allowing them to form their own beliefs and identity. For example, learning that Sikhs share their food with all who attend has taught me ……… about sharing that I would like to take forward with me. These lessons are often very creative and children have opportunities to make items to express themselves in ways other than just writing.

Jigsaw RE gives schools a choice of which religions to teach in different year groups. At Applebee Wood Community Specialist School we have chosen options as we feel this best suit the needs of our children and create a cohesive approach to our topic planning.

Attenborough class visited the Gujarat Hindu Temple in Broadgate, Preston. They had a great time admiring the religious icons and paintings. They also did some yoga breathing exercises and chanting. The worshippers were very welcoming and even gave us sweets!