Religious Education

At St Anne's, we teach Religious Education so that children can ponder some of life's biggest questions

Intent: 

RE at St Anne’s, is a highly valued academic subject that enables understanding of how religion and beliefs affect our lives. At St. Anne’s, we believe that RE has a vital role to play in the development of the whole child. Our aims in teaching RE are to encourage self-awareness, respect for others, open mindedness, appreciation and wonder as we tackle some of life's biggest and deepest questions.  Alongside this, we harness the desire to aid pupils in forming their own sense of purpose in life, along with the ability to respond to a range of important questions relating to their personal, spiritual and moral development. At St Anne’s, we have an important role to play in empowering pupils to be courageous advocates for change both now and into adult life. We encourage pupils to think widely and deeply about current issues; empower pupils to understand political processes and their own rights and responsibilities in society; encourage pupils to think of creative solutions to problems; and enable pupils to express themselves confidently and articulately to decision-makers and others.

In RE lessons, we will have informed and compassionate discussions, we will ask big questions and become philosophical thinkers. As we live in a multi-cultural society and with the ever-increasing travel opportunities, it is important that children understand the way people live their lives, for example their clothes, food, belief systems, holidays, festivals and customs. This will help children know and understand more about people from cultures other than their own, and help them to be more tolerant of others.

Religious Education Policy 

Whole School Overview

Progression of Skills in Religious Education 

Questful RE 

At St Anne's, we use Questful RE to guide our curriculum. The RE syllabus is a revision of ‘Questful RE’ the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education RE syllabus 2017. Building on the foundation of the 2007, 2013 and 2017 syllabuses, the diocese has updated and redesigned the content, bringing it in line with current best practice and pedagogical strategies.

By embracing the explicit teaching of Christian concepts and God’s big salvation story, it is hoped that the content of this syllabus will give pupils a deeper understanding of Christianity. In addition, pupils explore all major world faiths and discuss world views where appropriate.

Quality RE has the potential, more than any other subject, to have the most powerful and lasting effect on the child’s heart and mind. It is a subject that combines academic rigour with the development of the character and spirit of the child. RE provides opportunities for spiritual development and personal reflection. On a quest to discover more about religion and world views pupils will discover more about themselves. As RE develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the nature of religion and belief, it provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose, truth and values, identity and belonging. Pupils will experience, explore and encounter a wide range of creative and challenging multi-sensory activities that will help them to discover the answers to fundamental questions such as these: –

• Who am I and what does it mean to be me?
• In what ways do/can I relate to others?
• How/where can I encounter God?
• How can I make a positive contribution to the world in which I live?
• What values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour are important to me?
• What does it mean to have faith?
• Who/what influences and inspires me?

Through an open investigative enquiry approach the pupils will be given the sense of being on a quest of discovery. A key feature of the syllabus is the large number of questions included in each unit. The purpose of these questions is to give pupils opportunity to investigate, reflect, evaluate and make meaning. In doing so they will discover more about themselves, their relationships with others, their relationship with the world around them and their relationship with God. The questions set the route through the curriculum content.

The curriculum content is a balance of the three essential disciplines of quality RE, Theology, Philosophy and Social Science. This means pupils will look at concepts through a theological lens, exploring what people of faith believe. Alongside this pupils will explore questions and answers raised in relation to the lived reality and impact of religion and world views on people’s lives. They will also think like philosophers, and be equipped with the skills that will enable them to make sense of life’s experiences.

RE prepares children for citizenship in today’s diverse society. It enables them to develop sensitivity to, and respect for others. Through authentic encounters with living faith communities, pupils will develop diversity dexterity and be equipped with the ability to hold an informed conversation about religious beliefs and practices.

Understanding Christianity Project 

The resource ‘Understanding Christianity’ is used to compliment the delivery of our RE curriculum. The resource supports the teaching of Christianity in RE and aims to:
➢ Develop pupils' own thinking and understanding of Christianity.
➢ Explore the significant theological concepts within Christianity as part of developing pupils wider religious, theological and cultural literacy.
➢ Support teachers in developing their own knowledge and understanding of Christianity theology to be able to teach with confidence.

Through understanding Christianity, pupils will learn how to retell the core eight concepts of ‘The Big Story.’ It uses a ‘spiral’ curriculum, where pupils revisit these core concepts in different contexts as they move through the school. These varied encounters deepen pupils’ understanding of the meaning of these concepts within the overall ‘big story’ of the Bible whilst allowing all children to access the ’digging deeper’ materials to promote higher level thinking skills and opportunities for teachers and pupils to ask higher order questions.

For more information, please see the launch video below. 

Knowledge Organisers in Religious Education 

Knowledge organisers identify the key information that your child will need to have learned by the end of their learning challenge. 

How do they help children? 

They provide the essential knowledge that children need to cover in their learning challenges and can be used as a reminder prompt during lessons or revision tools. 

How do they help parents?

They give you a clear understanding of what your child will be learning about each term and allow you to support and further their knowledge at home if you wish to. 

We have developed our own Knowledge Organisers to support the delivery of the curriculum which contains a list of technical vocabulary with definitions. 

Spring One

Spring Two

Take a look at our recent entries for the 'Letters For Creation' exhibition at Chester Cathedral (2023) 

Religious Education in action

Examples of learning 

At St Anne's we use floor books to store all of our evidence from RE sessions. This allows us to be more creative in our approach to Religious Education. Take a look at some examples of high quality RE:

Festivals and celebrations from all over the world!

We take part in Christian festivals throughout the year such as Harvest, Easter and Christmas but we also enjoy learning about other world faiths and how they celebrate key religious festivals. 

What do pupils think about RE at St Anne's? 

"I loved the UCP launch day because there was a lot of crafting and it's great when we mix RE with art!" 

"The launch day was fun. We did lots of art activities linked to different parts from the Bible. We can tell the big story well."

"Holi is the Hindu festival and very colourful - I felt like a rainbow when everyone threw paint at me!"

"I know if I've done well in RE because I don't have any questions left at the end of an RE lesson."

"I love learning about other people's beliefs and what their homes are like."

"RE is a challenging subject because there are so many different levels. There is lots of talking which helps you to think about some really big questions."

"I love hearing my friends talk about their religions."

"I love how I can express my feelings in RE."

"RE is so important because we can learn about different things all over the world. It's important so that we can show respect to everyone!"