Religious Education
Religious Education (RE) enables pupils to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions, traditions and worldviews, recognising their local, national and global contexts. RE provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. The subject also provides all pupils with the opportunity to both ask questions and begin to express their own views in response to the material they learn about and in response to questions about their ideas. RE at St. John’s School is seen as a core academic subject and as such is given the same status as other core subjects within the National Curriculum. In our most recent SIAMS inspection in May 2019, RE was judged as excellent.
Aims of RE
Taken from the Religious Education in Church of England Schools - A Statement of Entitlement, the aims and objectives of Religious Education in Church schools are:
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To know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of core beliefs using an approach that critically engages with biblical text.
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To gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and worldviews appreciating diversity, continuity and change within the religions and worldviews studied.
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To engage with challenging questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
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To explore their own religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.
Time allocation
RE is taught weekly in every year group. In Reception and Key Stage 1 it is approximately one hour per week and in Key Stage 2 approximately 2 hours per week. Additional time is given to the teaching of RE through RE talks, activities and religious visits. Collective Worship is also timetabled daily but is separate to our RE time allocation (please refer to our Worship policy).
