R.E.
Christ Church have received their Gold REQM!
Religious Education is very important in Church of England schools.
RE has a high profile within the curriculum at Christ Church and is intrinsic to the outworking of our school’s Christian Vision in enabling all pupils to flourish. Pupils develop a wide range of skills including enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection. RE provides a safe space to explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of seeing, living and thinking, believing and belonging. It allows pupils to gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change through the study of different world faiths i.e. Judaism, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism. It is important that pupils view Christianity as a diverse, global living faith through exploration of core beliefs which critically engage with biblical text. RE units are concept driven. The concepts are: Good news, Christian Community, Kingdom of God, Incarnation, Forgiveness, Salvation, Resurrection, Discipleship, Creation and Holy Spirit.
Through R.E. we interweave these drivers in as many ways as possible.
For example:
Communicators – RE lessons provide a ‘safe’ space for children to be able to communicate their own feelings and beliefs. They are given opportunities to engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
Explorers – In RE children will explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of seeing, living and thinking, believing and belonging. We will consistently provide children with a range of opportunities to inquire, question, develop their own response and formulate their own views to fundamental issues as they encounter and respond to religion. They will explore world faiths through e.g. handing of artefacts, visiting places of worship, meeting visitors from faith backgrounds.
Reading - we encourage children to read and analyse biblical texts and to read new vocabulary relating to different world religions e.g. Mosque, Qur’an, Tallit, Gurdwara.
Believers – RE teaching helps children to understand the place of religious faith in modern life and the importance of developing their own beliefs. It is about creating an awareness within the child of the relevance of faith in their own lives and in the lives of others.
Through these drivers and the delivery of the RE curriculum we want our children to have a love of RE and be able to discuss Christianity as a living and diverse faith, focused on the teaching of Jesus and the Church. They will have a sound understanding of the main world religions appreciating diversity, continuity and change.
RE follows a long term plan which incorporates Blackburn diocesan syllabus and Understanding Christianity units. Each half termly unit begins with a 'Big Question'. The class discuss this Big Question at the beginning and end of the topic to show progression in knowledge and understanding of the unit. The pupils also complete a 'Quest Map' by way of assessment. Click here to see our long term plan for RE across the school.
This is the link to Understanding Christianity' which is used as a substantial resource to support RE planning - http://www.understandingchristianity.org.uk/