Religious Education

At The Priory, we are proud of all the work we do in our Religious Education (RE) lessons. RE lessons are varied and interesting to help the children develop tolerance and understanding, as well as appreciation, in a multi-faith country. We are proud to have received a grading of outstanding by SIAMS in 2016. This demonstrates the outstanding quality of our RE teaching and learning at our school.

Lessons

Each year group studies two main strands of RE

Learning about religion (AT1) – Children find out and discover the main beliefs of different faith communities and how people of different faiths demonstrate their belief.

Learning from religion (AT2) – Children consider the key aspects of a faith and reflect on how they might gain a better understanding of the world from it.

Overview

Intent

Progression of Skills Map

RE lessons involve space for children to think and reflect on different aspects of life. They are encouraged to think about big questions.

During their time at The Priory, children will cover aspects of the six main religions – Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism. Christian themes will be covered in every year group – plus units on other world views – following the SDBE syllabus. The whole SDBE syllabus was created in 2016 and was agreed with local leaders of the main religions.

In Year 5 and 6, a whole unit is dedicated to the teachings in the Bible through a visitor delivering 'Bible Explorer'. Many lessons include visitors, trips and creative learning.

There are also subjects that cover a theme and look at how different faith communities understand that theme. In Reception, the children learn RE in weekly sessions that are linked to the learning they are doing that week, as well as the SDBE syllabus.

The children will be taught through a variety of strategies including drama, art and practical experience. Big questions are also posed and discussed in RE lessons e.g. 'Should Christians pray in church or in the natural world which they believe God created?'

Pupils' Thoughts on RE

Pupil Voice KS2

Pupil Voice KS1

Visits to places of worship and visitors

We welcome visitors into our school as often as possible. If you have any contacts of those who may wish to come into school to speak with the children, please contact the school office. Having a range of people from different faiths visiting the school, really livens up the lessons and is incredibly important for the children’s understanding. Each year group tries to visit a place of worship or invite a parent in to talk about their faith for example Year 1's visit to a Hindu Temple in Wimbledon.

Prayer Space

Our prayer space room was blessed by our vicar and is used for RE lessons, as a place for quiet reflection and prayer for pupils, staff and the local community and as a focus on particular prayer themes. We open this space to all and worked alongside Holy Trinity Church to celebrate Thy Kingdom Come in this special area.