Curriculum statement
Religious Education
St Katherine’s Church of England Primary School
‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ - Mark 12:31
RE Curriculum statement
Intent
At St. Katherine’s Church of England Primary School, we develop a curriculum that is underpinned by our Christian Vision: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31) and a strong set of Christian Values: Love, Koinonia, Courage, Trust, Friendship, Wisdom, Hope and Forgiveness. These permeate all aspects of life at St Katherine’s, from the curriculum and worship to playground behaviour and class rules. The RE curriculum aims to ensure all children develop wisdom, knowledge and skills and enable children to reflect and explore the spiritual and ethical dimensions of faith. The curriculum also provides opportunities for pupils to develop spirituality by providing them with a window to look out into the world around them, a mirror to reflect on their experience and a door with which to step through and make an impact on their community. We intend to provide children with an exemplary understanding of Christian belief and practice, with particular attention to theological concepts and vocabulary.
Implementation
RE is taught as an independent subject and through a cross curricular approach to enable to children to explore faith in context. For example, during a Geography topic on volcanoes, children will be given the opportunity to reflect on the impact of charity during a natural disaster and encouraged to think about what they could do to help people in need.
RE lessons are provided in accordance with the Essex SACRE Agreed Syllabus, which draws from the most recent practice and educational thinking. The agreed syllabus is supplemented with the Understanding Christianity resource, which builds up pupils’ experience with biblical concepts through texts, placing them within the wider Bible story.
In St. Katherine’s we believe it is important to provide the children with a range of experiences to help embed their religious understanding and enrich their experiences. This may include visits to other places of worship, whole school Ecumenical services, whole school visits to St. Nicholas church, prayer space days and special event days to learn about both Christian and other faith celebrations.
Impact
Pupils leave St. Katherine’s school with a secure understanding of the RE curriculum; with the confidence to positively impact their local and wider community and to challenge injustice and inequality. We aim for all of our children to leave St. Katherine’s respectful, ambitious and with a thirst for life and all it has to offer.