Our Vision for Religious Education (RE)

At Bridekirk Dovenby School, RE expresses and strengthens our vision, ethos and values that are at the heart of what we aim to do in every aspect of school life that offers human flourishing for all. The importance placed on the development of the whole child spiritually, morally, socially, culturally (SMSC) and intellectually is reflected in the RE curriculum. 

In Bridekirk Dovenby Church of England School where pupils and staff come from different faiths and none, RE is a highly valued academic subject that enables understanding of how religion and beliefs affect our lives. There is ‘a commitment to generous hospitality, being true to our underpinning faith, but with a deep respect for the integrity of other religious traditions (and worldviews) and for the religious freedom of each person’, Statement of Entitlement 2019.

The school provides a RE curriculum that is rich and varied and studies a range of world religions and worldviews. At the heart of RE in this school is the teaching of Christianity, rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ that enables learners to acquire a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith.

Our aim is to provide a wide range of opportunities for learners to understand and to make links between the beliefs, practices and value systems of the range of faiths studied.  We aim to provide suitable learning opportunities that match the needs of all children. This includes providing relevant support, adapted activities and using a range of teaching and learning styles within lessons.

Pupils are encouraged to know about, understand and respond to the ultimate questions of life and ethical issues. Our curriculum inspires pupils to explore, develop and affirm their own faith/worldviews and values whilst having respect for the faith, beliefs and values of others. We are committed to education for wisdom, hope, community and dignity.

Encountering religion and belief includes:

• Enquiry into and investigation of the nature of religion;
• Key beliefs and teachings, practices;
• Impact on the lives of believers and communities;
• Different ways of expressing beliefs, teachings and practices;
• Developing pupil skills of interpretation, analysis and explanation in relation to religion;
• Pupils’ communication of their knowledge and understanding using specialist vocabulary;
• Pupils reflection on and response to their own experiences, questions of identity and belonging, meaning purpose and truth, values and commitment; and
• Development of religious literacy.

Aims

In keeping with the expectations set out in the Statement of Entitlement, the aims of RE in this school are:

1. To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs, using an approach that critically engages with biblical text.
2. To enable pupils to gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews being studied.
3. To facilitate pupils’ engagement with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
4. To enable pupils to recognise the concept of religion and its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies in different times, cultures and places.
5. To encourage pupils to explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways through living, believing and thinking.

Legal Framework

As a voluntary controlled school, as required by law, we provide RE which meets the requirements of the Cumbrian Locally Agreed Syllabus 2023 (the LAS). 

Parents have a legal right in accordance with the Education act 1996 to withdraw their children from RE lessons.  As this subject is central to the life and identity of Bridekirk Dovenby Church of England School, we ask parents to discuss with the head teacher any reasons they might have for doing this. We aim to provide a quality RE curriculum that can be sensitively and appropriately taught to all pupils, by all staff. We ask that requests for full or partial withdrawal from RE should be made in writing to the headteacher. The school will care for and supervise any pupils who are withdrawn from RE lessons, but there is no duty to provide alternative work.

Curriculum for Religious Education

RE is an academic subject that has a high profile in our school curriculum. It is given priority by leaders, including governors, who ensure that the teaching, learning and resourcing of RE is comparable with other curriculum subjects.

This means that the RE curriculum:

• is intrinsic to the outworking of our distinctive Christian vision in enabling all pupils to flourish;
• contributes to British values and to pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development;
• is delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner to engage and challenge all pupils through an exploration of core concepts and questions;
• provides meaningful and informed dialogue with a range of religions of worldviews;
• reflects a good balance between the disciplines of theology, human science and philosophy;
• enables pupils to acquire a rich, deep knowledge and understanding of Christian belief and practice, including the ways in which it is diverse;
• provides opportunities for pupils to understand the role of foundational texts, beliefs, rituals and practices and how they help to form identity in a range of religions and worldviews;
• ensures that all pupils’ contributions are valued in RE as they draw on their own experiences and beliefs;
• is adapted to ensure all pupils make progress and flourish.

We use the Questful RE, a scheme which meets the requirements of the LAS. We also use Understanding Christianity, a resource to support the teaching of RE.

There are clear learning outcomes for all units of work, based on the appropriately high expectations we have for all our pupils. Our RE curriculum is sequential and builds on prior learning which ensures that there is continuity and progression for all pupils as they move through the school.

Curriculum Balance and Time

At Bridekirk Dovenby School the faiths and worldviews taught in RE are:

EYFS and Key Stage 1

A progressive study of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism.

Encountering Islam and World Views – Humanism

Key Stage 2

A progressive study of Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam

Encountering Buddhism, Sikhism and World Views – Humanism

RE has at least 5% of curriculum time 38 hours per year (1 hour a week) in the foundation stage and key stage 1 increasing to 47.5 hours per year (1.25 hours a week) in key stage 2. Pupils also engage in enrichment activities outside of these hours when visiting speakers come in to school or the children go out on a trip.

Of the RE taught, 60% focusses on Christianity and 40% focusses on other faiths. As our school serves a largely white rural community, we feel it is important to use our RE lessons to celebrate diversity and to develop our pupils as global citizens with a respectful and secure understanding of the beliefs and practices of their neighbours across the country and round the world, whilst still maintain the strong Christian culture of the school.

A range of visitors support the teaching of RE, and whenever possible, there will be planned visits to places of worship and other places of interest.

Allocated curriculum time is only ever spent on RE related learning. Collective Worship is timetabled separately.

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC) / British Values

• RE is a key opportunity to develop morally, spiritually, socially and culturally. We invite pupils to reflect on their personal responses to issues and consider respectfully those of others.
• We encourage pupils to consider the answers offered by faith and other groups to questions of meaning and purpose and to problems within societies as well as their own experiences.
• RE also strongly supports the school’s citizenship work by introducing pupils to the significance of belonging to a community, diversity within communities, faith rules and their application to moral and ethical issues and cultural influences on religious practice. This includes work on the British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and respect.

Recording, Feedback and Assessment

At Bridekirk Dovenby Church of England School we have a marking and feedback policy which all staff follow. This policy advocates the importance of direct verbal feedback in lessons or as soon after the lesson as possible. If feedback has not been provided verbally then books are marked according to the policy.

Floor books are used in all classes to record group work, ideas, discussions, drama artwork etc. From Yr1 – Yr6 pupils also have an exercise book in which they record their own work. iPads, Seesaw and the Website are used to record dance or drama related to learning in RE

Children’s work in religious education is assessed by making informal judgements as we observe them during lessons. We mark a piece of work once it has been completed and we comment as necessary.

On completion of a unit of work, teachers make a summary judgement about whether children are working at, above or below the expected level and keep a record of these judgements. The assessment sheets provided by the Questful scheme of work for each unit are used to support this judgement as the statements link explicitly to the content being taught and reduce unnecessary teacher workload.

Teachers:

• identify development in the different areas of learning in the subject beyond the acquisition of factual knowledge;
• recognise the range of skills and attitudes which the subject seeks to develop;
• employ well-defined criteria against which to measure progress and achievement;
• ensure that pupils are involved in determining and understand their next steps;  
• enable effective tracking of pupil progress to identify areas for development in pupil’s knowledge and understanding, as well as whole school areas for development; and
• provide accurate reports to parents/carers.

Leadership & Management

The teaching, assessment and resourcing of RE is managed by the RE subject leader (in collaboration with leaders) to ensure that statutory requirements and those set in the Statement of Entitlement are met.

The RE subject leader will:

• will support and regularly monitor the subject across the school for its strengths and areas for development in line with SIAMS and Ofsted guidance about self-evaluation;
• undertake relevant and regular CPD to keep their subject knowledge and expertise up to date, and to ensure that staff receive appropriate training for the teaching and assessment of RE; 
• report regularly to the governing body so that everyone has an overview about progress and outcomes in RE; and
• ensure that RE provision reflects diocesan advice and recommendations.

This academic year (2024 - 2025), the Reception children will be linking their EYFS units of work to their care and investigate strands of learning, taught by Mrs Smith. 

KS1 and KS2 will be covering the Year A units of work in the planning above.

Previous Evidence and Enrichment of RE

After learning about Judaism with Mrs Fletcher, the Y1 & Y2 children enjoyed a visit from Sheila Gewolb, who helped them to learn even more. They asked her lots of questions and they all tried to blow the shofar (ram's horn) correctly to make a sound. We thought that nobody was going to do it, but then a Y2 girl managed to make a sound! After that, some more girls managed too! 

Then we tried the challah bread, which Sheila had kindly brought for us to taste. Thank you so much to Sheila for helping to enhance our learning in RE. Shalom until next time. 

The Reception children were learning about special places with Mrs Fletcher. After finding out more about churches, they used various resources to design and make their own. The end results were very special! 

The children made crosses with different materials to add to the garden. March 2023

Visit From Imran

The children in primary 5 have been learning about Islam religion last half-term and they were very lucky today to have a visit from Imran. Imran is a Muslim living in Bolton and he delivered an engaging lesson about ‘What is it like to live in Britain when you are a Muslim.’ 
He told the children about some of the fundamental beliefs and practices of Islam and also about some famous people who are Muslim and live in Britain. 
He then showed  a video of the temple that he visits in Bolton and told them all about some religious objects