Religious Education (RE)

The context of RE at Ramsden Infant and Nursery School is that of a small urban infant and nursery school, serving children in the age range 3-7.

• We teach according to the Cumbria Agreed Syllabus for RE.
• We recognise the variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds from which our pupils come. We welcome the diversity and we intend to be sensitive to the home background of each child. We actively seek the support of religious and non-religious members of our local community to support our teaching of RE.
• We recognise the inter-relationship between pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and the leading role which the RE curriculum plays in some of these areas.

Intent

RE at Ramsden Infant and Nursery School will be provided in line with the legal requirements. These are that:

• the basic curriculum will include provision for religious education for all pupils on the school roll;
• the content of RE shall reflect the fact that religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religious traditions represented in Great Britain;
• the RE which is provided shall be in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus for Cumbria.
  Within the framework of the law and the Agreed Syllabus, the aims in RE at Ramsden Infant and Nursery School are for pupils to:
• acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in the United Kingdom;
• develop an understanding of the influence of religious and non-religious worldviews, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures, locally, nationally and globally (encouraging an appreciation of ourselves, our school community and our local environment and fostering a sense of belonging);
• develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues, with reference to the teachings and diversity within the religious and non-religious worldviews represented in the United Kingdom;
• enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development by
  -developing awareness of the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences, and of how religious teachings and other beliefs can relate to them;
  -responding to such questions with reference to the teachings and practices of religions and worldviews relating them to their own understanding and experience;
  -reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study;
• develop positive attitudes of respect towards other people who hold views and beliefs different from their own, and towards living in a society of diverse religions and worldviews (fostering a feeling of tolerance and acceptance of others who hold different beliefs and views from their own.)

Implementation

The time allocated for teaching RE at Ramsden Infant and Nursery school will usually be 40-60 minutes per week. This may well be through cross curricular topic work where the requirements for RE correspond and can be linked well.

Scheme of Work

Staff have planned RE in the light of the Cumbria Agreed Syllabus. All year group’s Medium Term Plans can be accessed on the school server for more information.

EYFS themes have emerged from the EYFS Framework. Buddhism is covered in Spring Term/1st half.
Year 1 Christianity and Islam (during topic on the UK in Summer Term/2nd half.
Year 2 Christianity and Hinduism (during topic work on Nepal in the Spring Term.)

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Our policy is to aim to ensure the use in RE of art, drama, thinking skills, speaking and listening activities, visits, posters, photographs, videos, ICT use, display work and other active learning strategies. Cross curricular work is encouraged, in line with whole school policy on teaching and learning. We recognise the importance of teaching to the Agreed Syllabus in a creative, knowledge-rich, broad and balanced way.

Resources

We have a wide range of resources, to support our RE teaching, that we continue to develop. Physical resources are stored in cupboards in the Hall and in teacher’s own classrooms. There are various resources on the server also. We maintain an RE story shelf in the library, which offers many stories from different traditions. There is a range of RE ‘big books’ which can be used across the age range as well. The RE subject leader is responsible for carrying out an audit each year in order to update our collection.

Visits and Visitors

Visiting places of worship in the immediate vicinity of the school has been limited due to restrictions recently. We hope that as restrictions ease we will be able to make contact with these places again and that faith leaders and other members of the community might be willing to meet with children and be involved in the teaching of RE. We aim to use this valuable resource for all classes. Our hope is that all pupils have the opportunity to visit a place of worship and participate in the visit of a representative to their RE lessons.

If permitted, children will have the opportunity to make the following visits during their time at Ramsden Infant and Nursery school:
Reception – Visit to St Marks Church at Christmas to take part in a service and perform the Nativity. Another visit to St Marks at Easter. Visit to Conishead Priory in Spring Term during a topic on Buddhism.
Year 1 – visit to St Marks Church at Christmas to take part in a service and perform the Nativity. Another visit to St Marks at Easter. A possible visit to a mosque set up at Furness General Hospital or a visit from someone of Islamic faith during our learning about Islam in the Summer Term.
Year 2 – visit to St Marks Church at Christmas to take part in a service and perform the Nativity. Another visit to St Marks at Easter.

Vicar from St Marks Church has offered to come in and lead some assemblies throughout the school year. Staff are researching and discussing other possible visits and visitors to include in the coming school year in accordance with our RE curriculum.

Impact

We report on pupils’ progress and attainment in RE to parents, as required by law. The Cumbria Agreed Syllabus provides descriptions of progress and attainment, which the school has agreed to use as a basis for reporting at the end of each key stage. We make specific, individual, accurate comments on each child’s progress in RE in annual reports, based on regular monitoring of work and transfer this information to new schools when pupils leave us. The subject leader will look at pupils’ work for clear evidence of progress and attainment and share good examples with staff. The subject leader will also carry out pupil discussions and feedback to staff. This approach to exemplifying standards aims to clarify our understanding of what makes for quality RE and aims to support staff teaching and assessing RE in our school.

We intend that this policy should operate for the next 3 years, and then be fully reviewed by all staff and governors. To ensure that our RE policy is in practice, and to help teachers keep track of their own work and needs for support or training, all staff are asked to share a copy of the planning for RE with the subject leader each term. The subject leader’s role includes monitoring and evaluation of this policy in practice. We maintain a ‘self-evaluation’ of our RE work in preparation for any scrutiny.
The subject leader for RE will assess and review the subject’s strengths and areas for development and create an Action Plan for this subject. This is available on the server and a copy is in the subject leader’s file. It will be reviewed on a regular basis and adapted as necessary.

Withdrawal

We note the Human Right of parents to withdraw their children from RE and of teachers to withdraw from teaching the subject. We aim to provide an open curriculum which can be taught to all pupils, by all staff. Teachers are asked to refer to the head teacher any questions from parents about withdrawals. Requests for full or partial withdrawal from RE should be made in writing to the head teacher and a record kept of them.