RE Curriculum
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
INTENT: RE offers the opportunity to learn about people’s beliefs and practises, and how this impacts the lives of religious followers; it helps foster an attitude of respect towards all peoples and gives chances to ask and reflect on difficult questions and our own lives.
VISION: RE at Saughall All Saints should enable every child to flourish and to love life in all its fullness. It will help educate for dignity and respect, encouraging all to live well together.
As a voluntary controlled school, we follow the Local Agreed Syllabus for RE, which focuses on Christianity as a living and diverse faith, and the teachings of Jesus and the Church. For help with this, we take ideas from ‘Understanding Christianity’, a planning aid that enables us to ensure our teaching of Christianity is sequential. In addition to this, we also provide sequenced learning about a range of religions and worldviews (including Judaism, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism and Humanism), fostering respect for others.
Our RE enables pupils to acquire a rich, deep knowledge and understanding of Christian belief and practise, including ways in which it is unique and diverse. We provide opportunities for children to understand the role of foundational texts, beliefs, rituals and practises and how they help form the identity in a range of religions and worldviews. We also ensure that RE enables children to explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking, and provide opportunities to engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human experience and existence.
Our RE entitlement is totally separate from requirements for Collective Worship and, for this reason, Collective Worship must not be considered curriculum time for RE or the teaching of RE.
IMPLEMENTATION: Children are taught RE once a week following our 2-year rolling programme. Units of work are largely Christian and follow the Cheshire West and Cheshire syllabus for RE, with elements of Understanding Christianity within the Christian units.
Early Years: the children are taught to know some similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their experiences and what has been read in class.
Year 1/2: the children study Christianity, Islam and Judaism with some elements of Humanism throughout termly units of work.
Year 3/4: Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism with elements of Humanism throughout termly units of work.
Year 5/6: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Humanism.
RE IN 2023/2024
This year in RE we will be finding out about the following:
Autumn Term:
Year 1/2: Creation and the Fall (including Humanism), the story of Zacchaeus and the nativity story
Year 3/4: Describing God and the Trinity, Creation stories (including a Humanist view on Creation), and the different stories of Jesus' birth in the Bible
Year 5/6: The Kingdom of God, The Sermon on the Mount, Charity (including Humanist views) and the titles given to Jesus at Christmas time
Spring Term:
Year 1/2: Jewish views on G_d, Salvation and the Holy Spirit
Year 3/4: Jewish Passover, how the Bible helps Christians to live
Year 5/6: Mosques and how community is important to Muslims
Summer:
Year 1/2: What Bible stories teach about God, Allah and Muslim festivals
Year 3/4: What is important to Sikhs, worship and special days in Sikhism
Year 5/6: Forgiveness and Justice in Christianity, Signs of Salvation in churches and Genesis and Science
IMPACT:
The Big Frieze
Pupils across school have worked with Mrs Evans, Mrs Peters, Mrs Hand and Mrs Fabby to create this wonderful wall hanging that tells the big story of the Bible. There are 7 sections that identify what happens to God’s people throughout the Bible:
1. Creation– this is the story of Creation, how the world was created by God and that he saw that Creation was good. Remind them of the different things that were created on each day.
2. Fall– this part of the story shows how Adam and Eve did something they were told not to and had to live with the consequences of their actions. They had done something wrong and could no longer stay in the Garden of Eden and were separated from God. This is known as the Fall. God’s people are now separated from him and the rest of the story of the Bible shows that humans need rescuing and God’s plan for doing this.
3. People of God– the next part of the story shows God’s plan to reverse the impact of the Fall and save humans. He chooses a people to show what a relationship with Him looks like. He sends His people messages through prophets but the people don’t always listen; they make mistakes, have to live with the consequences and then realise their mistakes. They ask for forgiveness and are always forgiven, but then they make more mistakes and the pattern repeats itself.
4. Incarnation– a very special story in the Bible introduces us to God’s way of rescuing His people. A baby is born: his name is Jesus. Jesus will repair the effects of the Fall and offer a way for humans to be with God again. Incarnation means that Jesus is God living as a human.
5. Gospel– Gospel means good news and the story of Jesus is God’s good news for humans. His life shows us what it is like to be one of God’s people and reminds us to love our neighbour.
6. Salvation– the story of Jesus' death and resurrection 3 days later. Because of this, Jesus opened the way back to God. This was God’s rescue plan. Salvation means to save. God offered humans salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection.
7. Kingdom of God– this has begun in the hearts of God’s people but it doesn’t mean that there is no wrong in the world anymore. God’s people look forward to a time when God’s rule is being followed by everyone but for now they try and live a life like Jesus, loving everyone and trying to help everyone.
Year 3/4 Visit to Chester Cathedral and Festival Church
On June 20th, Year 3/4 went to visit Chester Cathedral and then Festival Church Chester. At the Cathedral, the children made mosaics and had a tour, looking at the Stained Glass Windows and the History of the building.
Once at Festival Church, the children met the Pastor, talked about the differences between an Anglican Cathedral and an Assemblies of God church and had the oppportunity to ask lots of questions.
Year 5/6 Easter Focus
Year 5/6 learnt all about the Easter story in March 2023 and then presented what they had learnt to the rest of the school during the Easter service in the church. They had fun learning the names of the people who were part of the story (Pontius Pilate- not a form of Yoga as the children quickly learnt) and retelling the key events of Holy Week.
Wedding Celebrations in Year 1/2 at Saughall All Saints
On Tuesday 11th October, Year 1 and 2 attended 3 different wedding ceremonies in one afternoon: a Christian ceremony, a Muslim ceremony and a Humanist ceremony.
We began in the church. Two of our Year 2s were ushers and ensured that the rest of the children knew where to sit depending on whether they were friends or family of the bride or groom.
Once seated, the bride walked down the aisle to the wedding march. She was accompanied by her father and two bridesmaids whilst her groom, along with his best man, waited patiently at the front of the church.
Vows were made, rings were exchanged and the register was signed. The proud father gave his daughter’s hand to her new husband, 1 Corinthians 13:4 was read from the lectern and a song was sung. The bride and groom then exited the church, followed by their friends and family.
Back at school, the children were seated ready for a Muslim wedding celebration with boys on one side of the room and girls on the other to show that this is what happens in some Muslim weddings. The parents of the bride and groom met to discuss the amount of money that the groom was going to give his bride as a wedding present and once this was agreed, the wedding took place.
The bride and groom sat on chairs as in some Muslim cultures they sit on a type of throne or platform so they can be seen by all the guests. Vows were made: these were suggested by other members of Year 1 and 2 and included ‘I will always love you’ and ‘I promise to always look after you’. There was a reading from the Qur’an, the register was signed and the Imam pronounced the couple as husband and wife. The ceremony ended with a prayer and then the couple headed off with their family for the second part of the wedding where performances, speeches and feasting happen.
After our Muslim ceremony, we headed outside for a Humanist wedding celebration. The bride and groom chose where they wanted to get married and they chose someone who they knew to be the celebrant (the person who carries out the wedding).
There was a welcome from the celebrant, a reading from ‘Us Two’ by A.A Milne and then the bride and groom made their own personal promises to each other. They exchanged rings and signed the wedding certificate and then they were presented as husband and wife by the celebrant.
What a fun afternoon we had.