Religious Education at Richard Taylor School

Religious Education

We understand R.E. to be an essential part of our school’s curriculum, which will make a distinctive contribution to each child’s development, both individual and social. In R.E. we aim to teach about religion:

to help children to understand what R.E. is and what it means to take a religion seriously.
to develop a respect for moral and religious values.
to promote tolerance and sensitivity towards others irrespective of their differences.
to develop an awareness in the children of their own value as an individual and within our school community.

As a church school we aim to ensure that our Christian tradition is expressed through the values we hold, through the curriculum, the ethos of the School, our expectations of behaviour and concern for one another.

A time of worship takes place each day. Sometimes we meet as a whole school, sometimes as separate younger and older groups and sometimes as individual classes. As a school we attend St John’s Church at least 4 times a year.

The clergy of St John’s Church lead weekly acts of shared worship. Members of clergy from a wide range of local churches are also welcomed into school to lead acts of worship.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from R.E. and assemblies, but Governors expect that in choosing a church school parents will support their children in taking a full part in the religious activities of the School, including R.E. and the daily act of worship.

RE Vision Statement

We deliver an RE curriculum, rich in experiences, which stimulates and challenges all learners to make sense of beliefs, make connections and understand the impact of beliefs of the lives of believers. In doing so we grow confident, resilient, happy, caring, and successful learners prepared for the next stage of their journey in life.

The three pillars of our strategic goals are:

Our Vision for All

That the delivery of our RE curriculum enables every child to flourish as a child of God, making sense of beliefs, making connections and understanding the impact of beliefs and the way in which humans put their beliefs into action in diverse ways.

RE is given the profile of a core subject within our curriculum.

Our Curriculum is built upon the Diocese of Leeds Syllabus and Understanding Christianity. Using these tools, we have created a curriculum which meets our two identified priorities:

To know and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith by exploring key concepts of creation, incarnation, the message of the Bible, the kingdom of Heaven and our place in the world as people of God. This includes making connections with the school’s Christian values and goals for every child.
To gain a knowledge, understanding and respect of a range of religions and world views, appreciating diversity as they grow in a community which does not reflect the diversity of faiths and cultures across the nation as a whole.

To ensure coverage we have create a curriculum framework which allows coverage whilst enabling children to deepen their understanding as they journey through school following different class pathways. We have worked hard to ensure that the children can relate their knowledge and understanding to our school’s values as a way of challenging them to consider the impact of beliefs and values on the way that they live their lives.

At the end of their time at RTS our children will be able to give a thoughtful account of Christianity as a living faith. Show a respectful attitude to religious and non-religious world views and reflect responsibly on how their own spiritual, philosophical and ethical convictions will enable them to be active citizens ready for the next stage of their educational journey.

Click Here to view our RE Curriculum Content

Knowledge Organisers

A knowledge organiser is a single sheet of paper that lists the important facts – not practical skills – that pupils should know by the end of a unit of work.

The school has developed a personalised series of knowledge organisers for each unit. They are used as:

A planning tool, to clearly outline the core knowledge that should be taught.
A low-stakes quizzing tool, to help pupils boost their recall of key knowledge
An assessment tool, to help teachers check whether pupils have learned the key knowledge.
A form of retrieval practice, to embed learning that has taken place within a unit or across the curriculum

A range of visits or visitors into school are woven into our curriculum planning. These are organised by teachers, in order to offer a range of experiences that help to broaden the understanding of curriculum content, enrich the curriculum delivery with real-life experiences and most importantly help the children to understand the impact of faith on the lives of believers. RE enrichment includes whole school learning activities throughout the year, called shine and share sessions, in which children find out about religious celebrations or festivals by working collaboratively with other age groups. Educational visits to a variety of places of worship are planned throughout the year.

A central objective of the trust is to raise the standard of educational achievement of all its students.

We believe that the schools within the trust should use assessments to gather information in order to make better decisions that enable us to meet this objective. The following principles guide how we decide what data we need to collect and how to ensure that the data is as reliable as it can be.

We are clear about the purpose of any assessments that we use, particularly whether the data is primarily being gathered for accountability or to inform teaching and learning
The amount of data collected is proportionate to its usefulness
We are aware of the need for assessments to be carefully planned in order to maximise validity and reliability
We are cautious about what can be inferred, especially from one data source

Assessment in Religious Education will be used to inform teaching and learning. Teachers will use the results of assessments to

Plan and deliver future lessons, which address misconceptions and ensure that students have learnt agreed key knowledge and are using identified vocabulary accurately.

Assessments will be shared with colleagues to ensure that future learning can be built upon what the children know.

A strong Curriculum underpins good progress. If the children have learnt what they have been taught the teacher can say that they are on track. If pupils remain on track they can be described as making good progress.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from R.E. and assemblies, but Governors expect that in choosing a church school parents will support their children in taking a full part in the religious activities of the School, including R.E. and the daily act of worship.

Religious Education