Vision 

At Woodlea Junior School, we believe that in our ever changing world, it is important that we equip our children with the knowledge, awareness, understanding and compassion that they will need throughout their lives. We believe that Religious Education will help our children to do this and therefore pride ourselves in our delivery of it.

Intent

As a community school, Woodlea Juniors follows the Lancashire SACRE syllabus for our curriculum and long term planning. From this we aim to deliver exciting and engaging lessons that are based heavily around discussion and questioning.

Through the delivery of our RE curriculum we aim to provide our children with the knowledge, awareness, understanding and compassion to make them well rounded people for their later life. Therefore, we will cover the six religions with a focus on Christianity, Islam and Hinduism which have been selected with our local area in mind.

We aim to introduce our children to people of different religions and cultures. As a school, we understand the importance of making sure that our children are aware and understanding of the religions and cultures that outside of what they see in school and at home.

Implementation

Within our curriculum, we cover six religions. Each half term we focus on a new key question and religion. The six religions covered in our curriculum are: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. Through year three to six Christianity, Islam and Hinduism are taught as progressive units. This means that each unit across and throughout the year groups builds on the knowledge from the previous.

In line with our intention of teaching RE through discussion and questioning, the programme of study for each year group has a ‘Big Question’ that underpins all of the learning that they complete in the year

Year 3 - Who should we follow?

Year 4 - How should we live our lives?

Year 5 - Where can we find guidance about how to live our lives?

Year 6 - How is life like a journey?

We have used our membership of Building Bridges in Burnley to bring in Faith Friends to deliver assemblies and workshops with our children. As well as this, we have a connection with the Gujurat Hindu Society who have delivered an assembly with our Year four children about how Hindus celebrate Diwali.

Impact

Across the school, the result of our RE curriculum is that children enjoy learning and are enthusiastic to learn about different religions and cultures. This has come from the effectiveness of the teaching that enables our children to explore new learning. Through our delivery, children are able to ask deep and meaning full questions – a skill that is transferred throughout all of the curriculum at Woodlea.

Throughout the years, children demonstrate a clear progression in their knowledge of other religions. Children are able to demonstrate their understanding of the ‘Big Questions’ that are being asked of them. The understanding and respect that our children have shown when meeting people of different faiths and cultures embodies our Core Valules and we believe in.

Autumn Term

During this term, we have had some fantastic work completed in RE. In year three, they have learnt about Christianity, focusing on the question, 'How and why have some people served God?' and Islam, looking at the question, 'Why is the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) an example for Muslims?'. In year four, they have learnt about Hinduism and Christianity, focusing on the questions, 'What might a Hindu learnt through celebrating Diwali?' and 'How might Christians use the Bible?'. In year five, children learnt about Christianity, focusing on the question, 'Why is it sometimes difficult to do the right thing?' and Islam, answering, 'Why is the Qur'an so important to Muslims?'. In year six, Christianity and Hinduism, looking at the questions, 'How do Christians mark the turning points on the journey of life?' and 'Is there one journey or many?' (respectively). 

Spring Term

Year 3 St Andrew's Visit

Year 3 visited St Andrew's Church to support their learning this term about Christianity.