RE at Maple Court Academy

Subject Leaders: Mrs C Steele

Intent

The principal aim of Religious Education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting their own ideas and ways of living. 

In RE we take this seriously, ensuring that all students have access to high quality RE lessons.  Here they can learn about a range of religious and non-religious worldviews, explore a variety of important questions and issues and, in turn, begin to consider they own thoughts and ideas about the world they are growing into.  

At Maple Court we use a range of strategies to allow children to think and consider the big questions that the RE curriculum brings.  We aim to ensure that all thinking and reflection time is purposeful and leads to deeper learning. To ensure that this happens, we are mindful of thinking and reflection when planning units of work that consider big questions.  Approaches such as hotseating, active storytelling and looking at stories from different perspectives enable teachers to carefully form questions that will encourage deep thinking and active responses.  

We have a clear pathway through the RE curriculum from Reception to Year Six which ensures progression in the children’s knowledge, skills and understanding of the 4 major religions studied here – Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism.  Children are encouraged to apply our Maple Values to their study so that as their learning grows, so does their curiosity and interest in the world around them.  We build in visits to places of worship for all 4 religions covered at school, over the children’s journey at Maple Court as well as visits in to school to further enrich the children’s understanding of Religious and non-religious views. 

The Subject Leader

Ensuring that all children are educated about the beliefs and values of all faiths, and none, is a passion of mine .  As such, the role of R.E. subject leader at Maple Court is perfect for me.  I am passionate about preparing our children for the multi-faith world that we live in, and believe that a good understanding of the beliefs of others is key to this.   

The curriculum

We use the Stoke-on-Trent agreed syllabus as the basis for our RE curriculum.  From this we have designed our own long term plan to ensure coverage and progression from EYFS through to Year 6.   

Maple Court Academy 2023-2024 RE long term plan – Stoke on Trent Agreed Syllabus for RE 2021-2026  

EYFS 

For our youngest learners in our Nursery provision Religious Education is non-statutory.  However, the staff plan and deliver sessions linked to many key religious festivals and celebrations, and incorporate these into the children’s ongoing provision.   

In Reception, children begin to follow the topics outlined in the Stoke-on-Trent Agreed Syllabus for Education with a focus on children encountering Christianity and other faiths as part of their growing sense of self, their own community and their place within it.  Their learning is evidenced in whole class floor books which record the children’s thoughts and ideas. 

Assessment for learning

Teachers are continually assessing children during RE lessons.  Through questioning and observation they look to identify strengths and any misconceptions and plan for the next steps in learning.  Retrieval practice forms the beginning of every lesson – constantly revisiting prior learning to keep it fresh in the children’s minds.   At the end of each topic the children complete a reflections lesson where they answer questions to demonstrate their learning over the topic, and compose a written response to the topic questions, giving the children space to share their thoughts and ideas from the whole topic.  This is a great way of assessing how much the children have learned. 

Pupil voice

‘We learn about God and how we belong to different groups.  It’s interesting’ – Cody 

‘It teachers you about how different people worship and what they believe in, it’s interesting’ – Alfie 

‘We learn about what celebrations people have, and it teaches us about the different religions around us’ – Lily 

JLT and School Council

There are 2 elected JLT links, with the role of supporting Mrs Steele in leading Personal Development & Welfare, including R.E. throughout the school.  These JLT members join in with lesson observations, book monitoring and gathering pupil voice.