Our teaching of Religious Education follows the guidance given in the latest Agreed Syllabus for Gateshead.

At Parkhead Community Primary School we want our pupils to develop an enthusiasm for and foster an enjoyment of Religious Education. Our pupils learn RE through discussion and experiences that broaden and raise aspirations as well as support acquisition of new religious knowledge. We provide our pupils with experiences and opportunities they many not otherwise access, through practical enquiries, visits to places of worship, and visitors in school (in accordance COVID Guidance).

We offer a curriculum which is engaging and designed to deepen their understanding of an ever-changing world and the religious elements within it. It also develops the key skills of curiosity, independence, confidence, resilience and adaptability that will help to prepare them for their future beyond school.

Intent

At Parkhead Primary we aim to:

• Develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religious ideas and encourage them to relate these to their everyday life experiences.
• Develop an enthusiasm and enjoyment of religious learning and discovery
• Develop the essential religious enquiry skills to deepen their religious knowledge and understanding
• Teach pupils different ways of thinking, how to find out things and use a range of methods to communicate their ideas effectively. We want to make our pupils confident learners who explore their ideas and thinking through religious education.
• Focus strongly on religious vocabulary to allow them to understand and communicate using appropriate terminology.

Implementation

Our Religious Education curriculum is based on the expectations of Gateshead Agreed Syllabus and is designed to ensure progress and develop interest in our pupils.  The syllabus focuses on four main religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Hinduism.  Each year group will have the opportunity to work on a specific programme of study which develops knowledge and understanding of religious concepts by providing a progressive curriculum which builds upon prior knowledge, skills and understanding previously taught.

Since September, at Parkhead Primary School, we have rolled out the Discovery RE scheme of work across the school. This scheme has a focus on Christianity in all year groups equally weighted with at least one other main religion. This scheme covers all expectations of the Gateshead Agreed Syllabus.

At Parkhead Primary school, we believe that classroom talk and questioning is key to meaningful and effective learning within Religious Education. In order to support the needs of our pupils, the curriculum has vocabulary and reading at its core. As children progress through school, children’s vocabulary is improved through consistent exposure to subject specific vocabulary, which is explicitly taught and revisited.  During all RE lessons, children are encouraged to use the correct vocabulary when explaining their ideas, thinking and reasoning. Teacher’s questions are structured in ways that provoke thoughtful answers and explanations, allowing for effective, high-quality discussions to take place.

At Parkhead Primary School, we want children to experience a lot of group work and working collaboratively, linking to our ‘be co-operative’ learning power. We believe that discussion gives opportunities for deepening understanding of another person’s faith. We believe it is important to allow children time to develop compassion and knowledge of the beliefs of others to allow all children to demonstrate their understanding and to celebrate everyone’s way of life.

Impact

Understanding eradicates ignorance, allowing room for all people to be given respect despite their religious beliefs.

At Parkhead Primary, we feel it is important for our pupils to look into the faith of themselves and others, as well as having an understanding that some people don’t have a defined faith. We feel that having an appreciation of others, leads to a more harmonious community, both within our school and in the wider community.

The impact of our aims and implementation of the aims will result in effective learning and progress for all children. Teachers will be able to discuss their teacher assessments based on what they see each day in class. The aim is for teachers to explain how they can be sure children have secured concepts of the curriculum appropriate for their year groups such as the children’s ability to retrieve key concepts taught and to make connections to previously taught concepts. Teachers should see incremental improvement of children’s understanding of concepts to be fairly sure children are learning and of the impact their teaching is having.