Religious Education at Trefonen CE Primary School

Our Christian Vision

Learning in Love, Growing in Faith

“She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her; and

happy is everyone that retains her” (Proverbs 3.18, KJV)

At Trefonen School we have been inspired by the words of Proverbs 3. We understand these words to mean that as a tree produces fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it, and everyone who uses it will be happy. Success and happiness are its fruit. Proverbs 3 is a father’s speech to his son, telling him to trust in God, pursue wisdom and treat others properly. The key message for our school community is to seek wisdom, happiness and success, through kindness, empathy and compassion as we live our lives in God’s love. This key message leads all that we do at Trefonen School.

At Trefonen, we inspire and empower all members of our school community, providing the knowledge to enable everyone to thrive and flourish.  Guided by our Christian Values, we seek to serve and lead the diverse world we live in treating everyone with compassion, dignity and respect. Hope and aspiration support all to grow and believe that all things are possible. As a Christian school our Christian ethos and values are central to all we do.  These values support our pupils and underpin our approach to everything that we do.

Intent

Through our RE curriculum we want children to:

• be able to discover more about themselves, others and God

• gain a strong knowledge and understanding of the Christian Faith and of other world faiths

• learn about and from religion

• develop their core values

• explore their spirituality

• use knowledge-based critical thinking skills to explore challenging issues,  including those that effect themselves, their community and the wider world

• provide opportunities for children to take part in collective worship, community endeavours and charitable acts, so that they may live out their faith, and have powerful and positive experiences to support them throughout their lives.

Through our RE Curriculum we aim to support pupils in gaining the knowledge, understanding, appreciation and respect for our diverse local, national and global religions, based on knowledge, understanding and respect of different beliefs, practices, values, traditions and world views.

Implementation

At Trefonen we follow the Shropshire agreed syllabus, as directed by Litchfield Diocese. Pupils will study Christianity through the key concepts of God, Creation, Fall, Incarnation, Salvation, Gospel, Kingdom of God and People of God. Pupils will also study other world faiths, including: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism.

We teach RE every week (FS and KS 1 pupils at least 30 mins per week. KS2 pupils at least 45 mins per week)

We use Understanding Christianity and Jigsaw RE as our core resources for teaching RE. The key elements of these two schemes contribute to our whole school’s RE Learning Journey (RE Road Map):

Our RE curriculum is intrinsically linked to our whole school values curriculum and consequently our Worship Curriculum. We explore one specific value each month through our whole school and class based Worship and endeavour to make connections with our RE Curriculum.

As an inclusive school we have a strong focus on respect, nurture, tolerance and celebrating difference. Children are supported in using accurate knowledge and critical thinking skills to explore challenging issues.

We use our strong links with our local church, All Saints, as well as visits to other places of worship and school visitors to enrich our children's understanding of Christianity and other world faiths, in order to give our children access to ideas, experiences, world faiths and world views that they might not otherwise have in our small rural community.

Our local vicar leads weekly assemblies to share stories and messages from the Bible and to help children to reflect on our monthly values. Our children regularly visit our local church for services and workshops to explore specific aspects of Christianity.

Impact

As a result of RE teaching at Trefonen School children should be able to:

• talk about their learning in RE with enjoyment, inspiration and  passion
• demonstrate an understanding of our school’s Christian Values, including knowing what these look like in practice and applying them to their everyday choices, as well as in their wider activities (‘Courageous Advocacy’)
• have a strong knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of Christianity, particularly the ‘big story’ of the Bible and the concept of Salvation
• develop a respect and understanding for other major world religions and world views, including celebrating the diversity of our multicultural world.
• know about and understand Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism as living, global faiths
• develop religious vocabulary enabling children to express their thoughts and beliefs as well as exploring the beliefs of others with respect
• reflect on what they have learnt, identifying what they would like to find out more about
• develop their understanding of the idea of ‘Courageous Advocacy’, to know how they can challenge injustice and how they can help to make the world a better place.
• mature spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to become well-rounded successful citizens in future life and have a positive impact on their friends, family, local and wider world community.