RWE at Blandford St Mary CE Primary School  

Curriculum Intent Statement

The Christian faith is the foundation of everything that we do at Blandford St Mary primary school. In all learning and life experiences, we aim to fulfil our school vision  ’Knowing we are loved we learn and grow to be the best that we can be ‘ this is underpinned by our biblical underpinning:  ‘Let all that you do be done in love’  1 Corinthians  14-16.

We promote an environment where all children feel loved, accepted, valued as individuals and where our Christian faith affects not only what we teach, but also how we teach.

Our RE teaching is informed by the DSAT Religious and World Views curriculum progression and guidance document. curriculum is based on the statement of entitlement:

• To know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text.
• To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied.
• To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
• To recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places.
• To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways living, believing and thinking.

The aims of the RE curriculum are to ensure that all pupils:

• Children are able to articulate clearly their deep understanding of religious and worldwide views and make connections between them.
• Children demonstrate that through a progressive, coherent, sequential curriculum, pupils know, remember and can do more.
• Ensure that all pupils have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in RE over time.
• Children consider deep and meaningful questions that have inspired human thought throughout history, and that still challenge children and adults alike today. 
• Children to have an encounter with Jesus Christ and with the Christian faith and practice in a way which enhances their lives.
• To develop an understanding of Christian inspiration with regard to wisdom, hope, life together, and dignity
• To develop a deep respect for the integrity of other traditions and beliefs, and for the religious freedom of each person.

Coherent

• We know that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric of the subject. Dan Nichols
• Data from the last 30 years lead to a conclusion that it is not scientifically challengeable: Thinking well requires knowing facts…  (Why Don’t Students Like School?, Daniel Willingham)
• When we organise facts, they become something broader – knowledge.   Organised knowledge with lots of connections is more likely to support successful recall.

A cohesive curriculum is a curriculum that is organised logically into concepts, which supports children to build their understanding and knowledge over time, both within and across those concepts. 

The substantive concepts under which the knowledge of religions and worldwide views has been organised are: creation, intermediary, salvation, witness and worship; and afterlife.

Curriculum Implementation Statement

This curriculum has been built under concepts which encourage the learner to be able to tell the story of religions and worldwide views, allowing them to connect, sequence and build knowledge of different faiths and worldwide views.  This in turn builds a body of knowledge within which they can make comparisons and ask deep and meaningful questions.

Further visual representation of the curriculum can be found in the RE curriculum map document.

Focused and Ambitious

This curriculum document sets out what it means ‘to get better’ at RE and worldwide views. Children are progressing if they are building their substantive and disciplinary knowledge. 

• Christianity accounts for 50% of the substantive knowledge, with the essential specific focused knowledge being drawn from the Church of England’s Understanding Christianity Curriculum. 
• The Abrahamic faiths of Islam and Judaism are taught throughout KS1 and KS2 allowing for comparisons to be made and deep and meaningful questions raised.  This is in line with the local syllabuses.
• The faith of Hinduism is taught during year LKS2 as an example of a different faith system which makes up part of our multicultural British community.
• Humanism is taught in UKS2 as an example of a non-religious worldwide view.

 

Rigorous

The curriculum is designed to be rigorous through embedding disciplinary knowledge within the substantive knowledge content.  The disciplinary concepts aim to support children in exploring religious texts (theology), examining the impact for religious communities (social science) and considering possible connections to themselves and others (philosophy).

• Text Meaning – Developing skills of reading and interpretation;
• Impact – Examining ways in which people of faith respond to religious texts and teachings, and how they put their beliefs into action in diverse ways.
• Connections & Worldviews – Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting the texts and concepts studied, and discerning possible connections between these and pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the world through worldviews.

 

Appropriate

Our curriculum aims to create a pathway for our children to assemble small ideas together, building into concepts which enable children to be confident in their own beliefs and values so that they can respect the religious and cultural differences of others, and contribute to a cohesive and compassionate society.  To support them to do this, we recognise that children need to be explicitly taught, notice and be curious as early and novice learners growing into increasing expertise as they make comparisons, question their beliefs and develop their own philosophy.

 

Curriculum Impact Statement

We aim to ensure that, through their Religious and Worldview learning, children at Blandford St Mary develop their sense of self, identity and belonging. They are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world. Our children are developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life and worship, which they are then able to communicate to the wider community. They will feel valued as individuals and that their beliefs are valued and celebrated