"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
- Albert Einstein
What does RE look like at Uplands?
At Uplands Primary School we follow the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE. Our aim 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. We ensure RE is delivered in a way that encourages a recognition and respect for the fact that we all have different beliefs and that they are all equally important. RE plays an important role, along with all other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE, in promoting social awareness and understanding in our children. We encourage our pupils to ask questions about the world and to reflect on their own beliefs, values and experiences.
The curriculum is structured in a way that allows for children to make links between current and previous learning. Teachers make comparisons between RE units previously taught, developing children’s deep knowledge and understanding across a wide range of religions and beliefs. All classes start their lessons with a retrieval practice activity focusing on the key knowledge and key vocabulary about their current unit or a previous unit with the aim to support the children to know more, remember more and understand more. We make links in our RE lessons to our five Big Ideas that appear throughout all subjects in our curriculum: environment, similarities and differences, diversity, relationships and changes.
Enrichment Opportunities
We enrich our RE curriculum through trips to places of worship, assemblies and visitors. In the past, these have included:
RE Outcomes
At Uplands, we communicate our learning through a variety of ways. In RE, these can include extended pieces of writing, short essays, annotated diagrams, presentations, discussions and debates, pictorial representations and drama.
Class teachers formatively assess the children’s understanding of the key concepts, vocabulary and knowledge taught throughout their lessons. They also record an overall understanding of key areas at the end of each unit to enable the subject leader and future teachers to have a picture of each child’s learning journey across their time from Reception to Year 6.
Our RE Curriculum
We have mapped out our RE units across all the year groups and set out the key knowledge we want the children to retain. We have also set out how each unit links to previous and future learning.