RE Intent Statement

Intent

At Fawbert and Barnard’s we believe children should be exposed to all different religions, faiths, and cultures in order to create a stronger understanding of the complex nature of the world around them. We want to develop children’s thinking so that they are able to grow into free thinkers with the ability to be critical of public discourse, which is crucial in the modern world we live in. We always keep in mind the future of our children and believe it is important that children can grow into adults who can hold academic and knowledgeable discussions about important global matters. We want to build pupils with strong religious literacy who can hold balanced conversations about religion and worldviews.

We value the religious background of all members of the school community and believe RE has an important role for the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. We promote respect towards those with other faiths and beliefs than our own.  We encourage the children to develop their own sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. It is important that RE allows children to develop their own personal awareness and therefore, teaching encompasses more than teaching facts about religions. Children can explore their own identity, human relationships, right and wrong and philosophical questions.  All religions and their communities are treated with respect and sensitivity, and we value the links, which are, and can be made between home, school, and a faith community.

Implementation

We implement the Essex Agreed Syllabus 2022 at Fawbert and Barnard's, using the Saffron Academy Trust RE scheme.  The main aims of this syllabus are:

• To know about and understand a range of religious and non-religious world views by learning to see these through theological, philosophical, and human/social science lenses.

 • To express ideas and insights about the nature, significance, and impact of religious and non-religious world views through a multidisciplinary approach.

 • To gain and deploy skills rooted in theology, philosophy and the human/social sciences engaging critically with religious and non-religious world views.

The children are taught through core questions, and therefore they may cover more than one religion at once as they begin to make links.

RE is taught for the recommended time each week, although in some instances teachers may decide to block this time.

Please see the document for the Fawbert and Barnard’s RE curriculum map. This shows the progression of questions throughout the years.

Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Assessing children’s understanding of topic linked vocabulary before and after the unit is taught.
• Summative assessment of pupil discussions about their learning.
• Images and videos of the children’s practical learning.
• Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
• Learning walks and reflective staff feedback (teacher voice).
• Comparative Assessment