Religious Education

Religious Education at Burton-on-the Wolds

The National Curriculum states the legal requirement that:

“Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at school and of society and prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.”

Religious Education is an important part of the curriculum at Burton-on-the-Wolds Primary School.

The principal aim of RE 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 on their own ideas and ways of living.”

RE contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in school by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. At Burton-on-the-Wolds, children will learn about religions and beliefs in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. Children will have the opportunity to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response and to agree or disagree respectfully.

The RE curriculum

Teaching should equip our pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and beliefs, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities.

At Burton-on-the-Wolds, we follow the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE 2021-2026, using the RE scheme of work and Understanding Christianity units as endorsed and suggested by Leicestershire SACRE. Children will learn about Christianity in each key stage. In addition, pupils will learn about religious traditions and people from principal religions represented in the UK, in line with the law. These are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. Furthermore, children from families where non-religious worldviews are held are represented also. These worldviews, including for example Humanism, will also be the focus of study.

The RE curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils make sense of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs, understand the impact and significance of religious and non-religious beliefs and finally, make connections between religious and non-religious beliefs, concepts, practices and ideas studied.