R.E. Curriculum Statement 

Our R.E. curriculum has been designed with the intention of enabling every child to flourish.  Good quality R.E. has the potential to have the most powerful and lasting effect on a child’s heart and mind.  It is a subject that combines academic skills with the development of character and spirit.  R.E. provides opportunities for spiritual development and personal reflection.  It provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose, truth and values, identity and belonging. R.E. prepares children for citizenship in today’s diverse society.  It enables children to develop sensitivity to and respect for others.  It breaks down barriers and builds communities.

Our R.E. syllabus focuses on the explicit teaching of Christian concepts and God’s Big Salvation Story, it is hoped that the children will develop a deep understanding of Christianity. Questions give the children opportunities to investigate, reflect, evaluate and come to an understanding. In our church school, this quest for understanding takes place within a living and active faith community, where questions about faith and belief are encouraged. In addition, children need to have experience of a range of the major worldwide Christian denominations and other world faiths.  We aim to give children hands-on, sensory experience of authentic Christianity and the other world faiths we study, principally Islam, Judaism and Hinduism.

It is not the place of R.E. to indoctrinate or envangelise.  It is our intention that pupils will experience, explore and encounter a wide range of creative and challenging activities that will help them discover the answers to key questions, such as:

• Who am I and what does it mean to be me?
• In what ways do/can I relate to others?
• How/where can I encounter God?
• How can I make a positive contribution to the world in which I live?
• What values, attitudes and beliefs and behaviour are important to me?
• What does it mean to have faith?
• Who/what influences and inspires me?

Understanding Christianity

This approach introduces the notions of God, Creation, Fall of Man, People of God (Old Testament concepts) Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation and Kingdom of God (New Testament concepts. The Understanding Christianity approach emphasizes the three point stage in developing a full grasp of how religion affects people’s lives: making sense, making connections and thereby understanding how Christianity affects people’s choices as to how to live – the impact of Christianity on our lives.  It is based on exploring text, discovering the impact and making the connection between Biblical events and life on Earth over time and in today’s world. Children are encouraged to dive deeper, to identify the content of stories that helps to explain and answer questions about what Christians believe about Jesus and God.

Our school’s virtues.

Our chosen virtues reflect our interpretation of the character and qualities of Mary the Mother of Jesus, after whom our school is named.  These values are: Compassion, courage, kindness, joy, responsibility and love. Creativity is encouraged through individual and collaborative learning experiences, a positive growth mind set, a sense of responsibility and challenges that take them beyond the classroom. 

Our children will have a confident set of questioning skills and knowledge supported by Christian values which can be used in education and life more generally. In short, they will learn more, remember more, enjoy more and develop more creatively, spiritually, socially and emotionally, thus enabling them to be ready for their next stage in education and life itself.

R.E. and Worship combine in our school to be at the very centre of everything we are and everything we do.

The Big Frieze by Emma Yarlett

Websites that meet the children's needs and interest areas across the age range include BBC Bitesize - Religious Education.

In KS1, we have enjoyed using YouTube clips in our R.E. lessons to learn about living in Britain as a Jewish child, and celebrating Jewish festivals such as Sukkot, which is the Jewish Harvest Festival.  Try "Jumpin' Jerusalem" on YouTube for very entertaining and educational fun.

For KS2 children, why not try:

World religions for kids

or

Places of Worship on R.E. Online

to link with our work on understanding and respecting different world faiths.

We believe that everyone is special as a child of God, and we seek to understand different world faiths, respecting the devotion that people of all faiths show to God.

Our curriculum follows the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education R.E. Syllabus for Church Schools.  This is entitled Questful R.E., and is creative and challenging for our children in school.  It incorporates a programme of teaching called "Understanding Christianity," which is used nationally in Worship and R.E. across many dioceses.  "Understanding Christianity" bases Christianity within  a framework called "The Big Story," which develops an understanding of the Old Testament and the New Testament through ten core concepts:

God

Creation

Fall (The fall of man - people turning away from God)

People of God

Prophecy

Wisdom

Incarnation (the coming of Jesus)

Gospel

Salvation

Kingdom of God

The children explore these concepts in different ways, according to their age, throughout EYFS, KS1 and KS2. The ten themes of the "Big Story" are used in Worship (Assemblies) and R.E. which leads to a consistent message running through school, which we aim to apply to all areas of school life.

As part of our R.E. and Worship focus, Mrs. Marshall has set up a Faith Group.  This meets on Thursday lunch times.  The diocese has asked all schools to address their Vision as an organisation in which Christianity runs through the core of everything we do.  Part of the focus of the Faith Group is to gain children's insights into what our school should be like, in order to demonstrate our Christian lives, and define our Vision.  Issues such as reaching out to those who we may not easily consider to be our friends are discussed, and posters created by the children to encourage sincere kindness, understanding, encouragement and generosity in  every aspect of our lives.  Please see the links to Faith Group on this website to find out more!

In July 2019, our whole school enjoyed a Spiritulality Week.  We came off timetable so we could immerse ourselves in R.E., worship and awareness of how our spirit can flourish in our natural world as well as through our learning in class.

All classes recorded their activities in their large R.E. floorbooks.

We enjoyed a particulary special Passport Day, when all the children moved round each classroom and participated in Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural activities, which all reflected the Christian and British values by which we live.  

Have a look at our photos on our Christian Distinctiveness page!