Our R.E and World Views curriculum develops deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. Our curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through the scheme, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views. Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in our progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning . By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldviews.
Our curriculum has the following three strands running through it:
✔ Substantive knowledge (conceptual and worldviews related).
✔ Disciplinary knowledge.
✔ Personal knowledge.
These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children’s conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses (ways of knowing). Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences. Our curriculum follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts.
In EYFS, children begin to talk about the beliefs of their immediate family and community, recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. They listen to religious and modern day stories and compare and contrast characters, including figures from the past. Children develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity. This will support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience. Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’ which will be revisited throughout key stage 1, lower key stage 2 and upper key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts. These ‘big questions’ are: Why are we here? Why do worldviews change? What is religion? How can worldviews be expressed? How do worldviews affect our daily lives? How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?
Our scheme aligns with the Worcestershire Religious syllabus.
Our R.E. and World Views curriculum will enable pupils to:
In the UK, parents still have the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education on the grounds that they wish to provide their own. (School Standards and Framework Act 1998 S71) Please come and talk to us if you feel you need to withdraw your child from our R.E. curriculum.