Tirlebrook Primary School
Religious Education (RE) at Tirlebrook Primary School
Religious Education Gallery
Curriculum Documentation & Information
RE - Progression of Skills - coming soon
RE - Key Vocabulary - coming soon
Religious Education Curriculum Intent
At Tirlebrook Primary School, using the Gloucestershire agreed syllabus for RE, we have designed a bespoke approach for the delivery of our Religious Education curriculum.
It is our intention to enable all pupils to explore what people believe and what difference it makes to how they live. We foster an atmosphere of understanding and tolerance as the children learn about Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism as well as other world religions and non-religious world views.
It is our intention to ensure that teaching is engaging and creative and the children’s learning offers a varied range of experiences and opportunities in which they can excel. We strive to develop the children’s positive attitudes towards all people, regardless of their personal religious or non-religious beliefs, leading to them becoming tolerant and responsible members of their future communities. Children are taught to develop their understanding of religious vocabulary in order to use it fluently and confidently in conversation and written work.
We strive to deliver our Religious Education curriculum through activities that promote speaking, listening, reading, writing and responding creatively. As a result, we intend for our pupils to become well-equipped with systematic knowledge and understanding to enable them to develop their own ideas, values and identities. Children who attend our school will learn about religions and beliefs in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. It is important to us that we develop an aptitude for dialogue in our children so that they can articulate themselves and are ready to participate positively and respectfully in our society, with its diverse religions and beliefs.
Our pupils will undertake and enjoy a range of learning experiences including handling of artefacts, exposure to written and visual stories, dance, creative and first-hand experiences. Children at Tirlebrook Primary School will be taught how to speak and write with increasing confidence about the beliefs and lives of people of all faiths and beliefs communicating clearly and with increasing levels of empathy and understanding. Our resilient learners become able to make connections and draw on prior knowledge across a range of subjects.
We believe that through our carefully planned and completely accessible Religious Education curriculum, our pupils will know more, remember more and understand more about core beliefs and religions in our diverse and multi-cultural society.
Religious Education Curriculum Implementation
The Tirlebrook Primary School religious education curriculum has been designed to teach children about religion, belief and spirituality so that they can learn from it and consider how they can apply aspects of it to their own lives. In this way, children are encouraged and supported to think independently, respect the beliefs of others and reflect on their own beliefs. At Tirlebrook Primary School, religious education is formally taught to all children across the school through a series of discrete lessons; learning sequences have the flexibility to be delivered weekly or as part of a block of learning.
Qualified teachers use the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2017-2022 as the primary resource to plan and deliver our religious education curriculum. At Tirlebrook Primary School, we have used the content and structure of the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus to sequence learning using a ‘key question’ approach - where every unit encourages children to be curious and explore a specific aspect of religion and belief in order to answer a question with greater depth of knowledge and understanding. To ensure that all children develop the necessary set of skills that enables them to express themselves articulately in response to aspects of religious education, teachers refer to a progressive set of vocabulary. Key vocabulary banks for teachers ensure that language learning also progresses through the children’s religious education curriculum.
Teachers at Tirlebrook Primary School use a variety of strategies to appeal to all learners, create an inclusive learning environment and support the progress and attainment for all. Throughout a sequence of learning, teachers will carefully craft opportunities for children to fully engage in learning and be immersed in the subject area of learning through the use of religious artefacts and sources, photographs, pictures and artwork as well as audio clips and video extracts. Practical activities to encourage participation in learning and evoke responses can include handling artefacts, drama, role play, cooking, art and games with each activating prior knowledge and building new learning and understanding. Where possible, and appropriate, religious education is woven into the wider curriculum and everyday school life for cross-curricular learning opportunities; these links further develop and reinforce religious education concepts, vocabulary and understanding.
Learning and lesson outcomes can and do present themselves in a variety of forms and teachers will select an appropriate medium for the children to be able to record their responses to a specific aspect of learning, including written work, annotated pictures, drawings, cartoons, artwork etc. some of which will be recorded in an exercise book or may be recorded digitally.
An integral part of the delivery of our Tirlebrook Primary School religious education curriculum is building links with and recognising the religious diversity within our school and local community. Children at Tirlebrook have regular contact with the churches and their communities in the local area and benefit from first-hand visits and guest visitors for meaningful and purposeful experiences. Other organised visits and visitors (some with cross-curricular links) are arranged alongside these experiences to ensure that children are offered a broad and diverse appreciation of religion and culture.
Children across the school are assessed informally in their knowledge and understanding of an aspect of religious education through teacher observations, pupil responses, written work, games and quizzes (for example). Alongside this, children are informally assessed against a framework of skills that allows teachers to track and monitor the progress and attainment of each child against age related expectations.
Religious Education Curriculum Impact
Our Religious Education curriculum ensures that children can make sense of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs. Children understand the impact and significance of differing beliefs, concepts, practices and ideas and make connections between them. Children at Tirlebrook Primary School talk enthusiastically and positively about their Religious Education learning; they are curious and are subsequently eager to further their learning. As a result, children at Tirlebrook Primary School are confident in discussing, explaining and challenging religious ideas and ask relevant questions (at an appropriate age-expected level).
Children at Tirlebrook Primary School communicate orally, in writing and through pictures, drama and role-play and show resilience in their learning of new content. It is our belief that the skills our children acquire and develop in order to be successful with Religious Education are transferrable to other areas of the curriculum.
Our Religious Education curriculum provides Tirlebrook children with an appreciation of the beliefs and practices of a range of religions that are part of our diverse, multi-cultural society. Additionally, children at Tirlebrook Primary School understand the relevance, importance and impact of religious and non-religious beliefs in the world around them and how this relates to everyday life.
Our approach to the delivery of our Religious Education curriculum enables children to draw on prior knowledge and apply it to current learning. Over time, our children’s knowledge of religious beliefs and practices increases and the ability to make connections develops, allowing children at our school to engage in whole class, group and independent activities. Children at Tirlebrook Primary School are assessed informally at the end of each unit to ensure that they achieve the age-related expectations in Religious Education.
We believe that through our progressive Religious Education curriculum, the children at Tirlebrook Primary School know more, remember more and understand more and are fully equipped for the next stage in their Religious Education learning.
