Religious Education (RE)
RE is a strength of the school. Lessons allow pupils the opportunity to study a range of world faiths and non-religious worldviews. The breadth of the RE curriculum results in opportunities for visits to the local church and places of worship from a variety of faiths. Pupils learn about the diverse nature of living in modern Britain and the importance of respect. Pupils are inspired by these visits to take part in art, crafts and drama activities which make the subject engaging and impactful. Pupils report that they love RE. SIAMS, 2024
Religious Education (RE) is a core subject at Ravensthorpe CE (VC) Junior School. We embrace the diversity and multi-faith aspects of our local community which are represented within our school. The Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds syllabus (click here to download a copy of the agreed syllabus which is followed in our school) is enquiry-based, focusing on investigations of key questions and pupils’ personal reflections. Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are studied in depth alongside non-religious world views. We also teach bespoke Christmas and Easter units of work. We encourage children to think about their own views and values in relation to the themes and topics studied in the RE curriculum. As a Voluntary Controlled Church of England school, our RE curriculum reflects the requirement for at least 50% of teaching to be based on Christianity.
Our curriculum is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of belief systems, engaging them in meaningful discussions, exploration of key concepts, and the investigation of foundational texts, beliefs, rituals and practices within these traditions. Our RE curriculum equips our pupils with the skills needed to dream big, aim high and achieve more in modern Britain including confident religious literacy, critical thinking, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection.
Our pupils leave Year 6 as young adults who have developed a respectful, tolerant and empathetic attitude towards a variety of faiths, including their own.
Please click here to see our RE Policy (alternatively you can find this policy and other curriculum policies under the ‘Curriculum’ tab).
Visits
To support our religious education, our pupils visit various places of worship throughout KS2. These visits greatly enhance learning and offer expert insight into how different religions impact upon the way people live their lives. These visits also provide our pupils with opportunities to make direct comparisons with their own faiths, strengthening our bonds of compassion, understanding, tolerance and respect. We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone involved in these wonderful visits.
See below for photographs from our visits.
Y3: St. Saviour’s Church, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury (Why is Advent important to Christians?)
Y4: Crawshaw Mosque, Ravensthorpe, Dewsbury (How do the Five Pillars help Muslims to live a good life?)
Y5: Sinai Synagogue, Roundhay, Leeds (How and why are Jewish festivals celebrated today?)
Y6: Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Huddersfield (How do Sikhs symbolise their commitment?)
Assessment
Our pupils are assessed through regular formative (observational) assessments in lessons. We also use work pupils complete at the beginning and end of topics to assess the learning that has taken place. See below examples of pupils' work before (left of each page) and after (right of each page) a Christmas topic, an Easter topic and an Islam topic. We regularly monitor progress of all pupils and this is reported annually to parents.
