Religious Education and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) at RCFS

INTENT

The role of RE here at the RCFS is to help prepare and equip all pupils for life and citizenship in today’s diverse and plural Britain, through fostering in each pupil an increasing awareness of, and sensitivity within, the diversity of religious and non-religious beliefs, practices, spiritual insights and world views they will encounter.

By EXPLORING, ENGAGING and REFLECTING, pupils will develop the knowledge, insights and skills necessary for them to be able to live authentically and responsibly as adults in today’s world, acknowledging how religious and secular communities seek to uphold and develop the well-being of the human family.

Religious Education plays a vital part in the spiritual, moral, social and cultural climate within our school.

Our choice of religions to focus on has been agreed as a pyramid and is based on Christianity being still the largest religion in the local area (61%-2021 census) and the fastest growing religion since 2011 is Buddhism – this reflects the chosen religions of study at KS4, it also allows for comparative thinking between a monotheistic and a dharmic religion in high school.  It was agreed that the study of Hinduism as KS2, would lay a good foundation for the work on Sikhism and Buddhism at KS3 and 4.  This ensures that children will have opportunities to come in to contact with a range of differing religious and secular views in order to formulate and articulate their own. Religious Education throughout our MAT, intends to provide children with understanding about beliefs that are represented broadly in the UK but not specifically in the local community as a way of preparing children for life in multi-cultural Britain.

IMPLEMENTATION

We will teach RE through the three main threshold concepts of the Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus, which are – Exploring, Engaging and Reflecting.

Exploring   BELIEFS

They explore religious beliefs, teachings and practices, acquiring knowledge and understanding of religious stories, sacred texts, lifestyles, rituals and symbolism that offer insight into religious experience and living within a faith community.

Engaging   PRACTICES

They engage with fundamental questions, appreciating the human and religious questions that are raised by life and its experiences, and through which meaning, significance and value are forged, and by expressing and evaluating their personal responses to such questions. Our pupils gain skills to be able to relate the things studied and discussed, to their own experiences.

Reflecting  COMMUNITY AND BELONGING

They reflect on the reality of religious diversity and on the issues raised by living in a diverse world. They develop skills of analysis and discernment in relation to prejudice, discrimination and bias, together with skills of self-awareness, moral judgement and responsible choice.

In our Early Years Foundation Stage our pupils have the opportunity to encounter the diversity of faiths represented in their own community and in Great Britain. Giving our young pupils the familiarity with the presence of major faiths and a wide religious vocabulary raises awareness of the diverse nature of the world around us and provides a structure in which to develop their learning.

In Key Stage 1 our main focus religion is Christianity and Islam.  However, we also learn about examples of beliefs and practices from other faiths and world views if they better illustrate the dimension being explored.

In Key stage 2, our focus is to study on Christianity and Islam and Hinduism, also again learning about examples of beliefs and practices from other faiths and non-religious world views if they better illustrate the dimension being explored.

RE will be taught through dedicated RE time and carefully sequenced plans, based on the agreed syllabus programmes of study and dimensions.  Our sequence of learning has been discussed and agreed with our middle school.

Also within our RE lessons, we teach our pupils about the values and moral beliefs that underpin individual choices of behaviour. We also promote the values and attitudes required for citizenship in a democracy by teaching respect for others and the need for personal responsibility, which links to our teachings of the Fundamental British Values. In general, by promoting tolerance and understanding of other people, we enable children to appreciate what it means to be positive members of our pluralistic society.

As a staff we recognise that there is no “solely correct” method to teach RE and that a range of styles will be encountered between and within each class.   The following range of styles are being included:

Ask questions

• Debate and discuss
• Evaluate different kinds of evidence
• Experience the use of sounds, actions, art and symbol in religion
• Express ideas and feelings through a variety of media
• Explore religious festivals and customs
• Investigate religious writings
• Handle artefacts and special books
• Reflect on personal experiences
• Talk about values, beliefs and experiences
• Use of art, music, drama, role-play and dance
• Use of film and video and online resources
• Use of discussion and story-telling
• Expression of experience in non-verbal ways (eg. Freeze-frames)
• Use of educational visits and visitors
• Cooking within other cultures

ENRICHMENT

Planned opportunities for enrichment involve:

• Philosophy for Children (PFC) Week
• Visits to places of worship in the village; St. Nicholas church Abbots Bromley, St. Leonard Blithfield and Sacred Heart RC.
• Visitors such as Rev. Davis, Charitable organisations.
• KS2 take part in Derby faith trail – visiting four different places of worship in Normanton.

RE Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus 2023

RE Yearly Overview

IMPACT

By the time our pupils leave RCFS we hope they will be enthusiastic about religious education and will have achieved the intended outcomes of the agreed syllabus and have:

• An increasing core of insightful knowledge concerning religion(s), beliefs and world views, both in Britain and in more global terms. (EXPLORE – BELIEFS)
• A developing capacity to engage with ultimate questions alongside the consideration of the responses from religious and non-religious groups and world views and to formulate their own sense of identity and values. (ENGAGE – PRACTICES)
• A growing range of the social, spiritual, and emotional skills and dispositions appropriate to living well in a religiously plural and open society. (REFLECT – COMMUNITY AND BELONGING)

Our children will be assessed against the agreed syllabus age related expectations.

RE Assessment Framework 2023

SMSC

It is our aim that Religious Education should contribute to the spiritual, moral and social and cultural development of our pupils.  Religious Education can help children develop their own informed values, religious and non-religious.  Children should learn to respect themselves and be sensitive to the needs and experiences of others, including considering the effect our actions have upon others.  Religious Education can also help develop pupils’ understanding of social issues like stewardship of the Earth’s resources, our citizenship within local, national and global communities and a genuine respect for persons and sensitivity to their values and beliefs.  Religious Education should also equip pupils to challenge inequalities and disadvantages associated with race, gender, class and ability.

We have carefully chosen 4 drivers for our curriculum design to best champion the ever changing cultural capital needs of our school community and our RE curriculum makes many links to these:

Possibilities

Diversity

Environment

Emotional Well-being and resilience

SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision for the spiritual development of pupils includes developing their:

• ability to be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and perspective on life
• knowledge of, and respect for, different people’s faiths, feelings and values
• sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them
• use of imagination and creativity in their learning
• willingness to reflect on their experiences

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision for the moral development of pupils includes developing their:

• ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to readily apply this understanding in their own lives, and to recognise legal boundaries and, in doing so, respect the civil and criminal law of England
• understanding of the consequences of their behaviour and actions
• interest in investigating and offering reasoned views about moral and ethical issues and ability to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others on these issues

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision for the social development of pupils includes developing their:

• use of a range of social skills in different contexts, for example working and socialising with other pupils, including those from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds
• willingness to participate in a variety of communities and social settings, including by volunteering, cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively
• acceptance of and engagement with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. They will develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT

Provision for the cultural development of pupils includes developing their:

• understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of others
• understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures in the school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain
• ability to recognise, and value, the things we share in common across cultural, religious, ethnic and socio-economic communities
• knowledge of Britain’s democratic Parliamentary system and its central role in shaping our history and values, and in continuing to develop Britain
• willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities
• interest in exploring, improving understanding of and showing respect for different faiths and cultural diversity and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity. This is shown by their respect and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities

SMSC development 2023 at RCFS

‘What I like about RE is that you learn about different religions and their beliefs.’ Y4 pupil

‘RE stands for Religious Education and in Y4 we have learned about harvest and how the world began’ Y4 pupil

‘I like RE because we get to learn how the world was made.’  Y4 pupil