Welcome to the RE Curriculum page

Foundry Lane Primary is a welcoming and inclusive school that represents a diverse ethnic, cultural and religious community. We actively seek to promote and celebrate our similarities and differences, drawing on the wealth of experience from both the children and staff alike and to recognise the contribution we can all make to our community.

Through our values we aim to create an environment where children, parents and staff are encouraged to share their beliefs, religious and cultural experiences, so that they can learn with, from and on behalf of one another to broaden their understanding of life in today's multi-cultural and multi-faith Britain.

RE at Foundry Lane Primary School will be provided in line with the legal requirements. These are that:

• The curriculum will include provision for religious education for all pupils on the school roll.
• The content of RE shall reflect the fact that religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of other principle religions.
• The RE provided is in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus for Hampshire – Living Difference III.

Within the framework of the law and the Agreed Syllabus, our aims in RE are for pupils to:

• Acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principle religions represented in the United Kingdom.
• Appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and our behaviour.
• Develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues, with reference to the teachings of the principle religions represented in the UK.
• Enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development by:

• developing awareness of the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences and how religious teachings and beliefs can relate to them.
• responding to questions with reference to the teachings and practises of religions and other belief systems, relating them to their own understanding and experience.
• reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study.

• Develop positive attitudes of respect towards other people who hold views and beliefs different from their own, and towards a society of diverse religions and beliefs.

Context

The context of RE at Foundry Lane Primary School is that

• We work to the agreed Hampshire syllabus; Living Difference III

• We recognise the variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds from which our pupils come.
• We acknowledge that each religion studied can contribute to the education of all our pupils. 
• All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school, and other faith communities. 
• We promote teaching in Religious Education that stresses open enquiry and first-hand experiences wherever possible for both staff and children. 
• We are glad to have the support of the local Christian church and Southampton City Mission; they provide us with opportunities to visit the church and come into school to help with our Question of Faith days.
• We recognise the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and the links with the RE curriculum that these can have.

Time allocation

The Hampshire agreed syllabus recommends:

EYFS- approximately 36 hours per year

KS1- 36 hours per year

KS2- 45 hours per year

At Foundry Lane these timings are flexible over the terms and are recommended to be done as a block of lessons.

Scheme of work

RE is based around half termly concepts and is cross curricular in some cases, but not all.

At KS1 Christianity and Sikhism are the main religions studied.

At KS2 pupils will continue to learn about these religions alongside those of Hinduism at lower KS2 and Islam at Upper KS2.

We aim to ensure a variety of teaching and learning strategies in RE, including the use of art, drama, thinking skills, speaking and listening activities, visits, ICT use and other active learning strategies.

Intent:

It is our intent for the Religious Education element of our school curriculum to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society. We want them to know how religious education promotes discernment and enables pupils to combat prejudice, preparing them for adult life, employment and life-long learning.

The intent of our RE curriculum is to deliver a curriculum which is accessible to all and that will maximise the outcomes for every child so that they know more, remember more and understand more. As a result of this, they will become independent and responsible members of a society who understand and explore big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that they can make sense of religion, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. We provide our children with opportunities for them to learn about and from religions and worldviews in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. They will be equipped with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities. Our children are encouraged to develop an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in our society, with its diverse religions and worldviews.

Year 1 has been learning about light as a symbol and Mrs Sing, who is a Sikh, came to talk to each class to explain about the Sikh Diwali and Bandi Chhor Divas. 

Links with the community

We are very fortunate that Southampton City Mission come and visit Foundry Lane to teach one Christianity unit per year group. This year we are lucky enough that they are teaching every year group. In year 6 they work on transition to secondary school, and year R to year 5 have a Question of Faith day based on their concept. The children really enjoy these days and learn through English, story telling, games, drama and art. 

Theresa from Southampton City Mission came to visit year R to talk to them about Jesus as a story teller. She taught the contextualise part of the Cycle of Enquiry for this concept. The children enjoyed learning about the different stories that Jesus told.