To enter into a rich discourse about the religious and non-religious traditions that have shaped Great Britain and the world”

Intent

At Silverdale Primary Academy, we inspire our children to be the best that they can be. We ensure that pupils experience a wide breadth of study, to give them the cultural capital needed for success now and in the future. At Silverdale we believe that it is vital for all our children to learn about religion and to learn from religion, so that they can understand the world and the community around them. The United Learning Curriculum for Religion & Worldviews provides all children, regardless of their background, with:

• Coherent and sequenced substantive knowledge of religion and worldviews represented in Britain and the wider world, selected to build childrens’ understanding through three vertical concepts. These vertical concepts build a thematic narrative and provide context across diverse worldviews, as well as using small steps to help pupils gain a deep understanding of complex, abstract ideas:
• Sacrifice: Giving something up for the benefit of someone else is a recurring concept across religious & non-religious worldviews and takes many different forms. What motivates human action and what are the societal and personal consequences?
• Knowledge & Meaning: One of the unique qualities of human intelligence through time has been our quest for knowledge and meaning. How have religion and belief impacted on humanity’s search for “Truth”? How do beliefs impact human behaviour? What is it reasonable to believe?
• Human Context: Human beings exist in, and are influenced by, their place in time and their geographical, political and social context (Person, Time & Place). Everyone is different, so how have our diversities been influenced by our personal context? What influences a personal worldview?
• A Worldviews approach provides opportunities for all children to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, but also to be taken beyond their own experiences. The Religion & Worldviews curriculum teaches children about diversity within and between beliefs, cultures and worldviews from across the world, and seeks to teach the skills and knowledge to hold respectful and informed conversations about religion and belief; to be religiously literate.
• A conscious inclusion of vocabulary and substantive content that recognises the need to decolonise teaching materials in a meaningful and accessible way.
• A scholarly approach to the core disciplinary knowledge of theology, philosophy and social sciences, developing Childrens’ ability to hold the types of conversation and to apply the methods and processes of theologians, philosophers and social scientists.
• A curiosity and openminded approach to the worldviews of others and a reflective consciousness of their own worldview.

 

Implementation

At Silverdale Primary Academy, core knowledge is revisited and developed throughout the children’s time at school enabling children to deepen this core knowledge and ensure learning is secure in their long-term memory. Vertical concepts are carefully sequenced and taught in Early Years, built on in Key Stage One and studied again in further detail throughout Key Stage Two.  This model allows children to build upon their prior knowledge and increases their enthusiasm whilst embedding this core knowledge. Our curriculum has been very carefully sequenced to ensure coverage and appropriate progression through substantive and disciplinary knowledge. Each unit clearly sets out the knowledge that should be taught and reviewed in the sequence of lessons. Lesson slides and resources for key aspects of the unit are provided in the Lesson Resources documents.

When teaching RE at Silverdale you would see; 

• A Unit Overview, which details a sequence of lessons that carefully plan for progression and depth  
• A teacher subject knowledge pack for each unit  
• A sequence of teaching that follows the Rosenshine Principles of Instruction  
• Low stakes quizzes used regularly to support learners’ ability to retrieve and recall knowledge and increase space in the working memory  
• Trips and visits from experts where learning experiences can be enhanced 

 

Impact

Our RE Curriculum is high quality, well sequenced and planned to enable progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making progress through knowing more and remembering more. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• The United Learning Curriculum for RE progresses year on year, giving pupils the core knowledge that they need to move forward in their learning, building on prior learning
• Alongside pupils are given opportunities to apply their knowledge to different contexts
• Pre and post learning quizzes are used to support effective learning through recall
• Pupil discussions about their learning demonstrate what they remember
• Pupils develop a greater understanding of the world around them