At Kirby Hill Church of England Primary School, our Religious Education curriculum

is guided by our Christian vision that “All things are possible for one who believes” ,

and is deeply rooted in our ACHIEVE curriculum drivers:

● Aspire

● Challenge

● Honour every individual

● Inspire curiosity and creativity

● Embed strong values

● Value community and global connections

● Empower through knowledge

Using both the Understanding Christianity resources and the North Yorkshire

Agreed Syllabus, our intent is to aspire for all children to be able to delve deeply

into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address.

We challenge pupils to think about the big questions of meaning and purpose in life,

beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be

human.

Our curriculum honours every individual, ensuring that pupils are able to use RE

lessons as a safe space to share and develop their own views and opinions. It aims

to inspire curiosity and creativity, giving pupils a stage for their own questions and

an opportunity to respond to questions in a creative way.

We embed strong values - such as resilience, responsibility, and compassion -

through collaborative work and self-reflection. Our Christian Value for this subject

is Respect. RE provides a framework for children to learn about diverse beliefs,

challenge intolerance, and understand different perspectives and ways of life within

a modern society. These are crucial towards the promotion of British Values.

We value our community and wider world, through our strong connection to All

Saints Church, Kirby Hill. The clergy and congregation offer valuable learning

opportunities through visits to the church and discussions on Christian beliefs and

living. We also appreciate the diverse nature of the wider community through trips to

different places of worship and by inviting in those who can share their faith with us.We empower through knowledge in RE – both substantive and disciplinary. The

substantive knowledge, the ‘what’ knowledge, contains the facts, concepts, beliefs

and practices. The disciplinary knowledge, the ‘ways of knowing’, are explored

through theology, philosophy and human/social sciences. Having this knowledge

empowers our pupils to then create their own knowledge- their own viewpoint or

response.

Religious Education at Kirby Hill is set in high regard. It is held with high esteem and

importance so that pupils are prepared to face the modern world and it’s diverse

nature.

Implementation

Our Religious Education curriculum utilises the North Yorkshire Agree Syllabus

alongside the Understanding Christianity resources.

Units from the locally agreed syllabus are structured around the three strands:

● Believing

● Living

● Expressing

Units across our long term plan have been chosen to balance these three key strands,

with the units that focus on ‘expressing’ placed towards the end of the year so that

pupils can draw on their knowledge of different faiths which has built up through the

year.

As a subject, RE learning is often discursive in nature. This promotes pupils’ oracy

and continually encourages one of our Christian values: respect. We also promote a

creative approach to RE, including elements such as drama, art or debate. For this

reason, sometimes work may be recorded as photographs or as a reflection of the

lesson.

Teachers are supported in their subject knowledge by the ‘Golden Threads’ document

that we have created, enabling them to see how RE knowledge should progress

through school. The subject lead attends diocesan RE network meetings and then

signposts teachers to new resources and materials through CPD in staff meeting

time.

Impact

The impact of RE is constantly monitored through both formative and summative

assessment opportunities. Each lesson teachers assess pupils against the learning

objectives. Furthermore, teachers complete an end of unit assessment, the findings

of which are recorded so that they can be monitored and checked by the RE subject

lead.

Our Children will:

● develop the skills of reflection, empathy, communication, enquiry, analysis and

evaluation and the attitudes of respect, open mindedness, sensitivity, critical

awareness and self-esteem;

● develop an awareness of spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC)

development issues in life experiences;

● develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other major world

religions and value systems found in Britain;

● develop an understanding of what it means to be committed to a religious

tradition;

● develop the skills to reflect on their own experiences and to develop a

personal response to the fundamental ‘big questions’ of life;

● develop an awareness to think for themselves, to question, to listen, and to

understand other people’s viewpoints in order to evaluate their own beliefs,

ideas and values;

● develop an understanding of religious traditions and to appreciate the cultural

differences in Britain today;

● develop investigative and research skills and to enable them to make reasoned

judgements about religious issues;

● reflect on and explore the spiritual and ethical dimensions of different

religions;

● wonder and to ask questions – develop their skills to live with mystery and to

understand that there will not always be answers;

● have meaningful opportunities to consider the existence of God or a “divine

other”;

● develop a sense of respect for other peoples’ views and to celebrate thediversity in society.

● Meet the legal requirements

RE at Kirby Hill weaves together knowledge, beliefs and viewpoints into a rich

tapestry which fosters understanding, tolerance and respect for a multicultural

society.

Parents and Carers have the right to withdraw their child/ren from all or part

of RE lessons and should contact admin@kirbyhill.n-yorks.sch.uk if they

wish to do so.