Religious Education at Sutton Bonington

Curriculum Intent

Religious Education is a compulsory subject and forms part of the National Curriculum to which every pupil should have access. It can provide the foundation for many people’s lives and promote acceptance and understanding of other beliefs.

Religion has an important influence on our society. Religious Education is concerned with pupils learning ABOUT religion and FROM religion, to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. It involves educating children about cultures both familiar and unfamiliar to them in order that they grow up informed, able to make choices, and respecting people of all faiths and cultures.

Whilst pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is nurtured across the curriculum, the study of religious and world views will also support pupils’ understanding of British Values such as acceptance and respect for others who hold different world views.

At Sutton Bonington Primary School, children should develop a sound knowledge of the following major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

We provide religious education and daily acts of collective worship as set out in legislation for local-authority-maintained schools.

Curriculum Implementation

Our RE curriculum is supported by ‘Love to Celebrate’ from the Cornerstones Curriculum though it remains in line with the Religious Education for All The Agreed Syllabus for RE in Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire 2021-2026  

There are 6 Imaginative Learning Projects (ILP) per year for Year groups 1-6 (1 each on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism). They are based around the 4 cornerstones of learning:

• Engage – contains a short memorable experience to introduce the concept to the children
• Develop – contains 4 sessions to deepen children’s understanding of the themes
• Innovate – encourages children to work independently
• Express – contains 2 sessions that allow children to consolidate their understanding and extend their knowledge

Each Love to Celebrate ILP is based around a religious festival. The celebration itself is only a small part of each ILP, as each set of projects covers all major aspects of each religion including worship, belief, leadership and belonging. Love to Celebrate encourages a variety of teaching methods including as role play/drama, stories and music. Visitors to school are encouraged to give children the opportunity to listen to and ask questions about another person’s experiences of living/celebrating through different faiths.

Each ILP has been mapped out across the year to ensure full coverage and also match some of the religious festivals to the time of year they actually take place. Teaching Love to Celebrate near to the date of the actual celebration will give context to the children’s learning and may provide opportunities to visit the place of worship.

Here is the Yearly Overview of Projects:

In the EYFS, children will encounter religions and worldviews through exploring special people, books, times, places and objects and by visiting places of worship. They will listen to and talk about religious stories. Children will be introduced to subject specific words and use all their senses to explore beliefs, practices and forms of expression. They will be encouraged to ask questions and reflect on their own feelings and experiences. In Class R, children will use their imagination and curiosity to develop their appreciation of and wonder at the world in which they live. RE will be taught through planned, purposeful play and through a mix of adult and child-initiated activity. Provision is integrated and may include songs, play, imaginative work, language development, story and creativity. Planned titles for units of work can be found below:

• Which stories are special and why? 
• Which people are special and why?
• What places are special and why?
• What times are special and why?
• Belonging: who are we and how do we belong?
• Our wonderful world: how can we care for living things and the earth?

Curriculum Impact

Through the explicit teaching of the Religious Education curriculum, teachers and pupils assess their learning throughout the lesson (AFL). Within the projects, pupils consider evaluative questions which provides opportunities for them to build a schema of connections of concepts and knowledge which they can retrieve throughout their continued learning journey in religious education. We hope pupils will be encouraged to undertake research independently to further their own enjoyment across a range of religious education topics. The main desired impact of teaching RE is that we send our learners out into the world with an understanding of the diversity of beliefs, practices, lifestyles and values which exist in our multi-cultural society.