Religious Education (RE)

RE Lead: Catherine McElheran  

RE lessons are delivered across all year groups by our specialist RE teacher, Catherine McElheran.

The Principal Aim 

“The principal aim of RE is to engage pupils in a systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religions and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop a response of their own.”

(Manchester Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2016-2021)

Religious Education is a vital part of learning in school because it allows pupil to think about the big questions in life and to answer them using a framework of different beliefs and worldviews. In R.E pupils are encouraged not only to learn about religions and worldviews, but also to learn from them. It is a space where pupils can reflect on their own thoughts, beliefs and opinions. Pupils have time to consider and develop their own ideas about issues and things of importance in their own lives and the lives of others. Also, R.E has close links to our PSHEE and RRS curriculum giving pupils a broad understanding of themselves and others in local, national and global contexts and forms a whole school ethos of care, respect, knowledge and valuing of others. 

The key resources used are ‘Manchester Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2016-2021’ and ‘LCP RE curriculum’. 

Lesson content

RE lessons are based on the LCP RE resource files. Within each topic covered there are three main aspects: 

• learning about different religions and worldviews  
• learning from different religions and worldviews 
• time to reflect and time to express their own ideas, in the light of their own experience and that of others . 

At the centre of all lessons is a respect of difference -understanding that people may have different beliefs and viewpoints from oneself and respect for those people. 

Each pupil has an RE exercise book for worksheets and/or written tasks. RE books are kept in each classroom.  

Topic themes for each half term: 

• Y1 – myself, celebrations, stories, special people, belonging and beliefs 
• Y2 – myself, celebrations, stories, leaders and teachers, belonging and beliefs 
• Y3 – birth ceremonies, right and wrong, Christianity, creation, caring for the environment 
• Y4 – becoming an adult, inspirational people, Judaism, Sikhism, war and suffering and neighbours 
• Y5 – life’s big questions, marriage, Islam, justice and poverty and wealth 
• Y6 – moral maze, what happens when we die, Hinduism, race and diversity and belief 

Different religions and worldviews (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Humanism and Atheism) are used to explore the themes and there are opportunities to compare and contrast different religions and worldviews.  

Talking Point 

Talking Point is a lesson in which a focus is presented for class or group discussion.  It follows many of the P4C ideas and techniques. The focus for the lesson may be in response to issues occurring in the class, year group, or school, or current affairs locally, nationally or globally. Also, the focus may be based around common ways of behaving, beliefs or problems. Its aim is to give children a space in which they can explore a topic, try out ideas, share opinions and practise their communication skills. 

Rights Respecting Schools

The following rights are highlighted at the start of each lesson:

• to voice their opinion and to be listened to (Article 12) 
• to get and share information (Article 13) 
• to think and believe what they want (Article 14) 

Pupils are reminded of the need for confidentiality and to respect other people’s viewpoints, opinions and any situations/information which have been shared. What is said in the Talking Point lesson is not to be repeated out of the lesson. 

Pupils are also reminded about showing respect to each other in the lesson in terms of participating in the discussion – not interrupting, taking turns to talk, listening to others, using appropriate vocabulary and not sharing other people’s situations.  

Lesson format varies to encourage all pupils to participate at some level in expressing their views or asking questions.