Religious Education

At St Thomas’ CE Primary School, Religious Education is a core subject which promotes:

1. A knowledge of Christianity; its stories, traditions, festivals, worship and teachings
2. An awareness of life’s spiritual dimension
3. A sense of Christian morality; explored through our Christian values of respect, perseverance, friendship and forgiveness – values which provide a structure to teaching throughout the school.
4. A knowledge and respect for the other major world faiths.

Through the above, we aim to help children to:

• develop an awareness of spiritual and moral issues in their own life experiences
• develop knowledge and understanding and respect for the range of religions and cultural differences found in Britain
• develop an understanding of what it means to be committed to a religious tradition
• develop investigative and research skills to enable them to make reasoned judgements about religious issues.

Teaching and learning style:

We believe that good teaching in RE should allow children to extend their own sense of values and develop their spiritual growth through their discussion, reflection upon, questioning and responses to a variety of religious ideas and concepts. Children study particular religious themes and compare the views of different faith groups. Where possible, religious teaching links to our Creative Curriculum themes and values. Discussion is guided by the principles of Philosophy for Children (P4C), creating a safe, collaborative learning community, within which the children take ownership of their learning, in pairs, groups or as a whole class, to share and discuss ideas. This approach develops a much deeper understanding of RE – getting beyond simply learning facts to handling ideas and questions more effectively. Learning in RE may be shared at assemblies and at festivals celebrated in both the school and church.

Through a variety of teaching methods, we aim to differentiate the RE curriculum and promote inclusion in a variety of ways including:

• setting  of open-ended tasks;
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty;
• grouping children in a variety of ways;
• providing resources to support or challenge as appropriate
• Using adult or peer support
• Talk frames and word mats aide discussions and writing
• Drama and retelling stories
• Using stimulus to develop questioning and discussion.