Our school curriculum is driven and shaped by our school vision, which informs everything that we do.
St Nicholas provides a welcoming, inclusive and aspirational learning environment at the heart of its community. We nurture, encourage and support all children, adults and their families to be the best as God intended. Following God’s example of love and trust, we develop resilience and creativity in all we do.
Learning, loving and encouraging through Christ.
An uncompromising focus on pupils’ personal development has made St Nicholas Church of England Primary Academy a place where pupils always come first. Ofsted 2019
Being a church school, RE is a very important part of our curriculum. We make sure that all of our teachers access and update their training every year to ensure that children receive excellent teaching to enable them to make good progress. As a result of this commitment, St Nicholas . was awarded the RE Quality Mark Silver Award. Although we are very pleased with this recognition of high quality teaching and learning, we are now striving for our gold award.
Intent
As a Church of England School, the Christian faith is at the heart of everything that we do at St Nicholas. In all learning and life experiences, we aim to fulfil our school vision. We promote an environment where all children feel known, accepted and valued as individuals, within a caring community, where our Christian faith affects not only what we teach, but also how we teach. We believe that it is fundamental for the children to belong to a safe and nurturing community, founded on strong Christian values where children will develop an array of skills that will enable them to make their own positive contribution to our global society.
Our aims for all the children in RE are:
- To provoke challenging questions about the ultimate meaning of life, beliefs about God, the nature of reality and morality.
- To develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal world religions, religious traditions and world-views, which offer answers to ultimate questions.
- To encourage pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging, in order to flourish within communities, as responsible citizens in society and global communities.
- To teach pupils to develop respect for others and their beliefs and helps to challenge prejudice.
- To prompt pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to wider society encouraging empathy, generosity and compassion.
- to develop their understanding of the ways in which beliefs influence people in their behaviour, practices and outlook.
Implementation
Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all children, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.
The statement of entitlements lays out the entitlement of all children to receive a high-quality Religious Education which supports them in all aspects of their learning.
“Religious education in a Church school should enable every child to flourish and to live life in all its fullness. It will help educate for dignity and respect encouraging all to live well together” (Statement of Entitlement)
The statement lays out the details of coverage of the RE curriculum in church schools. We ensure that we fully meet the requirement of the statement of entitlement for Church schools.
Our RE teaching is informed by two different teaching schemes: Understanding Christianity and The Kent Agreed Syllabus which incorporates materials produced by RE Today. By using these schemes alongside each other, we are ensuring that children are given the opportunity to become religiously literate. Understanding Christianity is based on seven core Christian concepts. Children will explore the different concepts using a range of inspiring activities as they move through the school, starting in Foundation Stage and developing a greater depth of understanding and knowledge by the time they reach Year 6. RE lessons all start with a key / big question which is explored through a range of activities including: texts, drama, art, discussion, use of artefacts, pictures, visits, visitors, periods of stillness and reflection. Children will also be given, ‘I wonder…’ questions to challenge their thinking further. Understanding Christianity believes that not only should children show an understanding of religious text and teachings but they should also demonstrate a deepened more thoughtful approach to their learning and how beliefs can influence day to day life.
Within the Early Years setting and Year 1, children record their work in a class big book and further up the school, children record their work in their own books.
We use the Kent Agreed Syllabus to plan and teach other world faiths, using similar teaching styles and methods to those used with Understanding Christianity. It is through using these two schemes together that we provide children with a holistic and balanced RE curriculum. During the course of a year, most year groups will teach 4 terms of Christianity and 2 terms of other world faiths.
Impact
By the time that our children leave school in Year 6, they will be able to:
- Ask and offer possible answers to challenging questions about the meaning of life, beliefs, nature of reality and morality.
- Have a secure understanding and knowledge of the religions studied including the vocabulary specific to particular faiths and be confident to answer ‘big’ questions.
- Have the ability to ask significant and reflective questions about religion and demonstrate a good understanding of issues relating to the nature, truth and value of religion.
- Have a sense of self, identity and belonging to flourish within the community and be responsible citizens.
- Show respect, tolerance and understanding of all religions and beliefs.
- Have a strong understanding of how the beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion impact on how its followers live their lives.
- Link the study of religion and belief to personal reflections on meaning and purpose.
- Exemplify the School’s Christian values in all aspects of life that are rooted in the teachings of the Bible.
- Children from all groups achieve well in RE and enjoy the subject
At the end of each term, Year 3 explore their key question in RE by writing, drawing, modelling, singing and making. The children love exploring and demonstrating their learning in this creative way.
Children visiting the local churches at part of their studies
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