RE Curriculum Design

Intent

The core of our RE is the Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus and the Lichfield Diocese Guidance. This provides the structure for RE teaching at Hugo Meynell.

As a Church school, CofE (VC), we have a SIAMS inspection which confirms the strength of our curriculum.

The context of our school is one in which most children come from white British backgrounds with limited exposure to religions and cultures beyond their own.

Our aim is, that by the end of KS2, all children at Hugo Meynell will have a sound understanding of the main beliefs and everyday practices of Christianity, Sikhism and Islam.  They will have learned about the origins of each faith, the holy books and key festivals and gained understanding of how believers’ faith has an influence on how they live their lives.

Implementation

The Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus provides us with a structure for teaching the skills and knowledge of the RE Curriculum. This is enhanced with the Lichfield Diocesan materials that we use for specific areas e.g.  Christianity.  We teach RE in units with progression and sequencing built into the structure.  Within KS1, the focus is on knowledge and the practices of different believers.  Within KS2, we progress to exploring the similarities and differences of the religions. 

The RE Lead teaches RE across the school.  This ensures that there is systematic progression for all children.  To ensure that class teachers are not de-skilled, the RE curriculum is stored on the shared area and CPD takes places to keep all staff abreast of developments.

We enrich our RE curriculum with a range of trips e.g. to Birmingham Central Mosque and other churches of different denominations.  We invite visitors into school including people of other faiths from the local community. 

An important element of the Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus is that children are encouraged to ask people about their faith and how it affects their lives.  By having visitors and trips, we enable children to do this.

From September 2023, we implemented the updated Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus.  This syllabus will continue to support the implementation of a high quality and ambitious RE curriculum. It is intended to be intellectually challenging and personally enriching for all learners. The specific curriculum themes of Explore, Engage and Reflect support the implementation of this new syllabus.
These three curriculum themes are supported by six broad dimensions woven into Programmes of Study:
1. Beliefs, teachings and sources
2. Practices and ways of life
3. Expressing meaning
4. Identity, diversity and belonging
5. Meaning, purpose and truth
6. Values and commitments

Impact

By the time our children leave Hugo Meynell, we want our children to be open-minded and sensitive to others. They will leave us with empathy and understanding for all faiths and cultures and to have a contribution to make as 21st century citizens.

We follow the main progression points in the assessment section of the Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus. These assessment outcomes are woven into every unit of work. The age-related expectations will be used to provide an overview of the reasonable expectations of achievement across the three themes for each year group.
For each statement a pupil can be assessed as:-
• working at greater depth/higher standard within the expected standard (GDS)
• working at the expected standard (EXS)
• or working towards the expected standard (WTS):

To view our current whole school RE curriculum plan, click here: