Religious Education
The purpose of RE from 'Living Difference IV, the agreed syllabus for Hampshire: ‘Living Difference IV seeks to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of looking at, and existing in, the world may offer in leading one’s life, individually and collectively. It recognises and acknowledges that the question as to what it means to lead one’s life with such an orientation can be answered in a number of qualitatively different ways. These include the idea that to live a religious life means to subscribe to certain propositional beliefs (religion as truth); the idea that to live a religious life means to adhere to certain practices (religion as practice); and the idea that to live a religious life is characterised by a particular way of being in and with the world, with a particular kind of awareness of, and faith in, the world and in other human beings (religion as existence).
Religious education in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton intends to play an educational part in the lives of children and young people as they come to speak, think and act in the world (see Living Difference IV and education). This entails teachers bringing children and young people first to attend to their own experience and that of others, to engage intellectually with material that is new and to discern with others what is valuable with regard to living a religious life or one informed by a non-religious or other perspective.'
The Curriculum for RE
Our RE curriculum is informed by two key documents.
Firstly, the locally agreed syllabus 'Living Difference IV' provides an overall framework and structure for the teaching of RE in all Hampshire Schools. Living Difference IV seeks to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of looking at, and existing in, the world may offer in leading one’s life, individually and collectively. It recognises and acknowledges that the question as to what it means to lead one’s life with such an orientation can be answered in a number of qualitatively different ways. These include the idea that:
to live a religious life means to subscribe to certain propositional beliefs (religion as truth)
to live a religious life means to adhere to certain practices (religion as practice)
to live a religious life is characterised by a particular way of being in and with the world: with a particular kind of awareness of, and faith in, the world and in other human beings (religion as existence).
Secondly, because both schools in the Federation are Church of England Schools, we use Understanding Christianity to structure and inform our teaching of Christianity. The aims of Understanding Christianity are:
To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, by exploring core theological concepts
To enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills in making sense of biblical texts and understanding their impact in the lives of Christians
To develop pupils’ abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion and belief (particularly Christianity), of themselves, the world and human experience.
Our ambition for RE:
By time our students reach the end of Year 6 we want them to be able to
Communicate
respond creatively as well as begin to explain their response to their own experiences of the concepts/words introduced.
Apply
explain some examples of how their responses relate to events in their own and other people’s lives.
Inquire and Contextualise
accurately explain meanings of concepts/words in the traditions encountered and studied (taught at the Inquire step).
accurately explain the way the concepts/words in the traditions encountered and studied impact the lives of those in the traditions with examples (taught at the contextualise step).
Evaluate
discern the value of these concepts/words in the lives of those living in the traditions encountered and studied, as well as recognising some of the issues this might raise.
discern possible value in the concepts/words for their own lives and communities