Religious Education
Religious Education in our school is taught in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus and reflects the teaching of the Church of England.
Through the teaching of religious education we aim to promote the spiritual and moral development of the children, at the same time seeking to ensure that it promotes respect, understanding and tolerance for those who adhere to different faiths.
Understanding Christianity
For the teaching of Christianity, we use the resources from Understanding Christianity, which has been developed by the Church of England Education Office.
These resources allow the children to build a theological and conceptual understanding of Christianity by...
Helping children make sense of a biblical text and how Christians interpret them.
Understanding the impact of the biblical text and how Christians put their beliefs into action.
Supporting children to make connections with the biblical text to their own lives and others around the world.
At St Peter’s First School we have adopted the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019 and fully support its intention to provide high quality RE teaching that will prepare our pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We want to teach RE while supporting the rest of our creative topic-based curriculum which helps to provide children with broad and balanced opportunities which promotes spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development. We aim to support our pupils towards becoming religiously literate.
We believe that pupils who are religiously literate will be:
Able to make sense of a number of world religions and world views, learning about them through theological, philosophical and human/social science lenses.
Understand the complex world in which they live and the impact of religious and non-religious worldviews through a multi- disciplinary approach.
Become critical and free thinkers who are able to express their ideas and insights.
Able to make academically informed judgements and observations about religions and world views.
Understand how religion and belief can shape the global landscape.
Be ready to take their knowledge and ideas forward into upper Key Stage 2 (becoming middle school ready).
Become free thinking, critically aware and compassionate pupils.
Our RE curriculum is put together in key stages on a two-year rolling programme (Cycle A and B).
RE is planned for and taught every half term, and the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus guidelines are used to ensure children are given a broad and balanced experience of RE using the multi-disciplinary approach using the three key disciplines outlined in the guidance:
Theology |
Thinking through believing It is about asking questions that believers would ask. It requires pupils to think like theologians, or to look at concepts through a theological lens. Pupils will explore questions and answers that arise from inside religions and worldviews. |
Philosophy |
Thinking through thinking It is about asking questions that thinkers would ask. It requires pupils to think like philosophers, or to look at concepts through a philosophical lens. Pupils will explore questions and answers raised through considering the nature of knowledge, existence and morality. |
Human/Social Sciences |
Thinking through living It is about asking questions that people who study lived reality or phenomena would ask. It requires pupils to think like human and social scientists, or to look at concepts through a human/social science lens. Pupils will explore questions and answers raised in relation to the impact of religions and worldviews on people and their lives. |
For more information please also read the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus for RE 2019.
In EYFS children will study Christianity and one other religion or worldview. This may change from year to year, so please see the long-term planning grid below.
In KS1 children will study Christianity and one other principal world religion in depth and a third religion which reflects the religions in the local and extended community. This may change from year to year.
In KS2 children will study Christianity & two other principal world religions and encounter at least one other religion or world view. These may change from year to year.
KS1 & KS2 Yearly Topic Planning Grids for Cycles A and B | ||||
LTP Religious focus | Cycle A | Cycle B | ||
In depth study | Periphery study | In depth study | Periphery study | |
EYFS | Christianity | Judaism | Christianity | Judaism |
KS1 | Christianity Judaism | Hinduism | Christianity Islam | Sikhism |
KS2 | Christianity Judaism Hinduism | Humanism | Christianity Islam Buddhism | Sikhism |
As recommended by the Agreed Norfolk Syllabus and exemplar curriculum, we follow the enquiry approach to teaching RE with a balance between Theology, Philosophy and Human/Social Sciences (colours to identify enquiry approach in the grid below). The grid below has been adapted from the Exemplar curriculum map (Norfolk Agreed Syllabus 2019) to incorporate planning across cycles A and B. The numbers i.e. [1.5] relate to the exemplar units for each year group and for quick reference in the long-term planning grid.
To find out more about our aims and values at St Peter's, please follow the link below.
A parent does have the right to withdraw their child from religious education if so wished. In order to comply with the 1988 Education Reform Act each school is required to ensure that all pupils take part in daily collective worship. Nothing in the Education Reform Act affects parents’ rights, as established in the 1944 Act. Any parent does have the right to withdraw their child from collective worship if they wish.