R.E.

Religious Education

At Westbourne we encourage the children to develop spiritual, moral and cultural awareness through the study of Religious Education. Lessons follow the agreed Sutton Syllabus (SACRE.) Each academic year, the children learn about different elements of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Through assembly times children often have opportunities to learn about stories from different religions and the universal meanings we can take from these.

R.E lessons allow our children to learn about different religions and improve their understanding of the beliefs of others. The children are often keen to learn more of the faiths celebrated by others in their class. We teach children to be open-minded and to seek information to help answer questions they may have about various religions. Children are often encouraged to make links between religions to find commonalities and themes. This helps them to build a more comprehensive view of the meaning of religion in people’s lives.

We encourage first hand experiences to develop learning through handling real artefacts and, wherever possible, arrange fieldwork visits to places of religious significance. The children enjoy listening to speakers about day to day life of different religions. We also welcome visitors from different faiths to discuss their beliefs with the children.

In our RE lessons, we focus on the following themes through different religions:

• Places

• Writings and stories

• Festivals

• Key people

• Rites of passage

   

• RE Skills

   

  At Westbourne, we are keen to foster certain skills throughout our work in R.E. These include the ability to investigate, analyse and interpret information. Additionally, the children are then guided to reflect on, and empathise with, various ideas before then developing their ability to express their own ideas and opinions.

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  Our programme of study is as follows:

• EYFS:

• Festivals and Celebrations

• Year 1:

• ‘Our Beautiful World’ topic,

• Hinduism (people and festivals)

• Christianity (Key people)

• Judaism (Key people and Shabbat

• Places of Worship

• Year 2:

• Judaism (Writings and Festivals)

• Festivals of Light

• Christianity (Sacred writings, People and Places)

• Islam (Key People and Places, Writings and Festivals)

• Year 3:

• How does faith help us?

• Islam (approaches to life)

• Christianity (approaches to life, sacred writings)

• Hinduism (Places, Festivals and sacred writings)

• Year 4:

• The importance of prayer

• Judaism (Key people and places)

• Islam (Key People, places and festivals)

• Christianity (Places of worship and approaches to life)

• Year 5

• Christianity (Places, people and sacred writings)

• Hinduism (Key people and places)

• Islam (Key people, places, festivals and sacred writings)

   

• Year 6

• Christianity (Places of Worship, Prayers, Faith into Practice, Discipleship, Parables, Symbols)

• Buddhism (Key people, places, approaches to life, festivals and places of worship)

• Inspirational figures (Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks)

• Useful Links

   

  Here are some websites you could look at to learn more about different faiths

   

  http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/religions.html

   

  www.topmarks.co.uk and click on the 'religion' tab!