RE (Religious Education)
Quality of Education
At Uplands, we strive to develop in our pupils an appreciation for the beliefs, cultural practices and influences of religion. We aim to support children in their progressive learning journey, becoming knowledgeable about four major world religions as well as Humanist thinking, through engaging and purposeful teaching. We want our pupils to be able to apply their knowledge in a range of contexts, including being able to compare the beliefs and practices of these religions. Very importantly, our lessons provide pupils with opportunities to develop their sense of tolerance and respect for those who believe and live differently to themselves.
Throughout the school, RE planning adheres to the Wolverhampton SACRE Agreed Syllabus and aims to help children develop knowledge and understanding of four religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism, as well as beginning to explore Humanist ideas. Our programme of study seeks to enable pupils to appreciate the way that religious beliefs shape life and behaviour. Pupils are given opportunities to make reasoned judgements about religious and moral issues, which enhances their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
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RE is taught in such a way at Uplands as to reflect the overall aims, values and ethos of the school. As a UNICEF Silver Award, Rights-Respecting school, we promote religious understanding and respect, while challenging prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping. RE is taught on a weekly basis. Each new unit begins with an informal quiz to assess how much prior knowledge the pupils have retained. Pupils are provided with knowledge organisers, and at the end of each unit pupils are given one of the suggested assessment tasks within the SACRE planning, which provides an opportunity for them to show their progress.
Each year group visits a different place of worship and we believe these trips play an important role in maintaining positive relationships, and promoting the British Value of ‘mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.’
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Our RE curriculum promotes each pupil’s self-worth, enabling them to reflect on their uniqueness as human beings and creating an environment where every pupil feels confident to share their beliefs, experiences and values.
The teaching of RE provides opportunities for: group work, mixed ability work, whole class teaching, independent work, peer assessment and self-assessment.
RE is assessed through teacher observations during discussion, as well as regular quick quizzes, enquiry challenges and more structured end of unit tasks. Throughout the cycle, the teacher will be responding to children’s work providing praise, support, encouragement and future thinking points to move their work forward.
The RE champion carries out periodic book trawls and pupil voice surveys in order to ensure continuity and progression, and to identify areas where the curriculum can be developed.
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