Religious Education

‘RE is like the Tardis. Despite the small space it occupies in the curriculum, it is huge, encompassing nothing less than humanity’s most searching questions, its deepest hopes, the history of the world’s beliefs and their diverse manifestation in the modern world.’   (NATRE)

Intent: RE plays a central role in a broad and balanced curriculum that will enable students to participate fully in a multi-religious and multi-secular world. It aims to enable young people to hold informed and balanced conversations about worldviews, religion and beliefs. It provides a safe environment where pupils can explore their own ideas and learn to evaluate the opinions of others.

At St John’s, through our Religious Education curriculum, we aim to enable children to gain a knowledge, understanding and respect of Christianity and other religions. Though exploring ‘Big Questions’ they will develop the confidence to be curious, to enquire, revisit, build on their knowledge and reflect on their learning as they progress through the school. We hope to develop their understanding of the ways which beliefs influence people in their behaviours, practices and outlook enabling them to develop respect for people and the planet.

Implementation: Our RE curriculum is based on the Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus which uses Big Questions to promote curiosity whilst exploring each unit of work, such as, ‘Why do most Christians call God ‘creator?’ and ‘What is the significance of Karma and Moksha for a Hindu?’.

Christianity is the main religion taught throughout the school, in accordance with national guidelines. In addition, Judaism is introduced in KS1 and Hinduism and Islam in KS2. In both Key Stage 1 and 2 children all so consider non-religious worldviews.

The learning process follows a pattern of: Engage -Enquire and Explore – Evaluate – Reflect and Communicate. Through a spiral curriculum we aim for the children to be able to engage, enquire, evaluate and reflect on their developing knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other religions built upon from EYFS to Y6. RE is taught termly when the whole school engage in a focus day. This allows pupils to be fully immersed in the subject. RE floor books are used to record the journey of pupils’ learning in RE.

The units will take children on a journey through a range of concepts driven by three core strands: Beliefs and questions, Community and identity and Reality and truth. These strands will create connections between substantive and the disciplinary knowledge, and the units will include opportunities for the development of personal knowledge. The aim is to develop curiosity in pupils and equip them for future learning about, as well as enabling them to make sense of, the complex world of religious and non-religious worldviews.

Beliefs and questions will focus on theology, looking at the core beliefs and diverse interpretations of text, symbols and teachings of the chosen religions and worldviews.

Community and identity will focus on Human and Social Science and using data and other sources to examine practices and human expressions of religious and non-religious beliefs.

Reality and truth will focus on philosophy and ethics, looking at how people decide what is true and reliable drawing on the worldviews covered in the other units. It is in these units that pupils will have the opportunity to explore the wider concept of what a worldview is and how people reach these ideas.

Through the teaching of RE we aim to inspire curiosity through exploring a range of exciting learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom thorough drama, debates, exploring and creating art, visits to  places of worship and visitors from other faiths to the school, sharing their experiences for example on pilgrimages.

EYFS: Religious Education in EYFS introduces diverse beliefs and values. Children explore festivals like Christmas, Diwali, or Eid through stories, songs, or Expressive Arts linking to ‘Understanding the World’. They discuss similarities, like sharing or kindness, fostering respect. Adults, use role-play or artefacts, such as a diva Lamp or prayer mat, to make learning tangible.

Questions like “What do you celebrate?” encourage reflection. The focus is on curiosity, helping children appreciate community and difference. These experiences build early awareness of cultural traditions, preparing them for deeper exploration of religion and ethics in later education.

Impact: Each unit of work identifies key knowledge that children are expected to know by the end of the unit and the spiral nature of the curriculum ensures that prior learning is revisited regularly. Teachers assess pupils ‘learning of RE’ – the knowledge children are expected to learn and ‘learning from RE’ – children’s personal knowledge; their responses and reflections to what they learn.

Class floor books allow teachers to regularly revisit learning in RE. Alongside this retrieval tasks are planned throughout the unit of work to ensure pupils know and remember more. Teachers use these tasks to address misconceptions and gaps in knowledge. Teachers use the subject assessment grids to record pupils’ learning and this then informs future units of work and teachers.

Reflective Areas in each class also evidence the children’s spiritual and personal development often making links with their learning in RE as they explore the school values and our Vision Statement. 

Curriculum Plans:

Click the link below to download the RE curriculum documents:

Long Term Plan for Religious Education

Scheme of work overview

Knowledge Building Blocks

EYFS Knowledge and skills progression 

Key Stage 1 Knowledge and skills progression

Key Stage 2 Knowledge and skills progression