Intent

At Carr Infant School, we follow the City of York SACRE Agreed Syllabus. As it states within the SACRE syllabus, we believe that ‘the purpose of teaching RE is to allow our children to explore big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can make sense of religion, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living’. 

Through our Religious Education curriculum, we aim to engage pupils in enquiring into and exploring questions arising from the study of religion, faith and belief, so as to promote their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We believe it is important to provide our pupils with the knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other principal religious faiths, traditions and beliefs represented in Great Britain and the wider world.

We aim to teach and model to our pupil’s the understanding of the ways in which beliefs influence people's behaviour, practices and outlook.

We encourage pupils to develop a positive attitude towards people who hold religious beliefs different from their own.

Implementation

RE is timetabled for 1 hour, weekly for each year group. We follow the City of York Agreed Syllabus (2021 updated).

By using the School long term plan, each year group then plans specifically from the syllabus units. 

Where possible, RE may be also implemented into other areas of the curriculum. We also have weekly assemblies which may have an RE focus. This may relate to a particular religious ceremony or an enrichment visit from our local vicar.

We will provide the children with a variety of experiences and enrichment opportunities.

These may include: 

• handling artefacts
• exploring scared texts
• using imaginative play or drama to express feelings and ideas
• responding to images, games, stories, art, music and dance
• meeting visitors from local religious communities
• making visits to religious places of worship where possible, and where not, making use of videos and the internet
• taking part in whole school events- (multi-faith days, Harvest Festival, school performances)
• participating in moments of quiet reflection
• participating in assemblies
• using ICT to further explore religion and belief globally
• comparing religions and worldviews through discussion
• debating and communicating religious belief, worldviews and philosophical ideas and answering and asking ultimate questions posed by these

Impact

At Carr Infant School we can judge the success of our RE curriculum in the following ways:

• Pupil voice – are children happy, engaged, motivated to do well, challenged?
• Learning walks (including those with governors and external visitors) –do they show evidence of our intent in action?
• Planning – is it allowing children to gain knowledge and master skills, does it meet the needs of all learners?
• RE Books and Class Big books – is presentation of a high standard and are all children making at least expected progress from their various starting points? Is the children’s voice recorded? Is there evidence of children’s own views and opinions. 
• Data – is attainment and progress at least in line with National averages, do all groups achieve as well as they should? What provisions are in place to support children who aren’t making progress?
• Learning environment – is it rich in language to support children’s learning, does it support independence?